No Place For Heroes
by MQDK
Summary: Jonathan O'Neill is a knight in sweaty gym pants, Jack O'Neill is a worried old fart and SG1 is...well, they are missing! Maybe a trade off is just what the SGC needs?


A/N: this have been hanging around on my LJ for years, unfinished and almost forgotten. Now, it's finally done and thank god for that. I have loved writing this, but it's been a pain in the butt as well. Anyway, some of it is beta'ed, some of is not. Some of it is spelling and grammar proofed, some is not. Sorry about that.

I have posted it as one document, ´cause I still suck at this uploading thing, but it's 8-pice thing. Hope it's not _to_ confusing.

Anyway, as usual, I don't own anything, I'm just a teacher with way to much imagination and not enough time.

On with it:

**Chapter 1: The Breakfast Club**

So this is what detention looks like these days?  
Not much of a difference, these last two decades, give or take a few years.  
It´s still the same types of kids sitting here;

-The Air head; the girl with the big hair, loads of makeup and a nail polish on the work. Most likely she's here because of that, not really paying attention in class.  
She's the girl with the wealthy parents who works so much that they don't really see that there beautiful baby girl, there love and pride, are heading for trouble.  
She's not there yet, but probably don't really care about school and homework.  
Her biggest achievement this year is joining the cheerleader squad.

-The big dumb bully (who probably will end up as a fine marine one day)  
who is sitting here because he has nothing better to do, and his teachers can't figure out what to do with him.

-The political active high-tech hippie who probably downloaded a virus on the schools computer in protest to the cantina food. Not that I really blame them in trying to end that little secret organization. I have heard rumors among the other kids that the big old woman in the mess… scratch that, CANTINA, are really a secret Russian agent, here to kill all of Americas youth, before we get to dangerous.  
I have my doubts about that, I mean; sure Olga is Russian, but a low profile agent?  
Let's just say that she's not exactly James Bond material…

-Then there is the geek, being here totally innocent, the victim of a cruel joke played by those who really should be here.  
This time I know what happened to poor Nicky, and I tried to stop it, I really did, but when that didn't work (being 5 feet 1 doesn't bode as much respect as 6 feet 2 used to do) I tried to get the kid out of harms way and take the heat for him.  
Witch resulted in a bloody nose on me and a broken one on the kid who messed with Nicky in the first place.

I thought that Nicky might be just a little thankful for me stepping up for him, I mean, I don't expect the kid to be my grateful slave for the rest of the semester, a thanks would have done fine, but nooo, how wrong was I? ;  
Mere seconds after we both were dragged out of gym class to the principal office,  
(A broken nose always beats a bloody nose, so the Goon Boys went to the school nurse instead of the principal.) Nicky shoot me a look I remember coming from Daniel when he was high on the sarcophagus in Hammons office.  
Full of loath, hatred and…pity.  
But back then I knew it was the "drugs" talking and not Daniel.  
Nicky on the other hand, meant every word of it when he hissed out:

"Gee thanks for NOTHING O'Neill! Your really a genius, you know that?!"

I never saw the class "sarcasm- advanced", anywhere when I joined this high school, but apparently, Nicky is quiet the master… not exactly what I had expected.  
When will I learn never to judge a book by its cover?  
I mean I should know by now, don't ya think?

Silver tongued as I am, I almost exploded right there on the hallway.  
I know I wasn't a pretty sight, blood on my favorite shirt, the one and only Air Force shirt Jack let me keep, (and now its ruined), blood smeared out on my face, properly stinking of sweat from gym class. I never could turn down hockey.

"Excuse me?!"

Nicky didn't seem to impressed and only snorted something and walked on.  
I grabbed the kid's arm and spun him around to face me.

"Hey, I just saved you from getting up and personal with a hockey puck!"

It had been a dirty trick, to draw straws for the spot as a coal keeper, and Nicky is a tiny thin, spectacled, well lets face it, geek. He would never had had survived such a force as Billy the Goon no doubly would have launched his puck with.

"Say you, yes. Not me. I never asked for a undersized knight in sweaty armor to come save me."

Okay, I admit it; I lost it right about there…

"Undersized!? Wha…Who…Why, you little SHIT! "

Not one of my finest moments I know, but the kid just had it coming!  
So, I kinda slammed him up the wall, not hurting him of cause,  
just giving him a scare… or I tried to.

It didn't really work the way I had in mind.

He just sighed, rolled his eyes slightly and looking down at me.

Yes so I might have lifted him a bit, but I'm not exactly used to be called little and usually, when I save somebody, they usually also show just a tad gratitude.

"Oh goody, now we go all primitive on the defenseless geek, right?"

This kid was just begging for more.

"You know what? I should have let you take the puck in that net.  
Then I wouldn't have to listen to you insulting me!"

Call me a pessimist, but the SGC was SO a better place then this will ever be.

Right about then a roar rivaling Teal´c s bounced off the walls and took me totally by surprise. Thank god for SF training, and, to my own credit, I didn't as much as flinch.

Maybe not the best way to react when you're portraying a 16 year old school boy, but I'm telling ya, ol´ drill Sergeant Selca from back then, would have been proud and I would have gotten of lightly, only doing like a thousand push ups after supper, and not a million like the rest of the guys…

"O'Neill!"

Okay, so principal Jackson had in mind to meet us half way, or so it seems.

I don't know why, we have only had pleasant conversations in his office before, so maybe it was because of Nicky…  
Maybe the kid is a troublemaker, he sure have a tendency to get on peoples nerves.

I almost got a whiplash as I turned my head to look at Jackson with what I only hoped was enough persuasion to let the man know that the kid had it coming.  
But, apparently, it wasn't enough.

"Let him go!"

The big black man came down the hall in a breath taking speed.  
His Texan accent reminded me of Hammond, and his outer exterior of Teal´c.

How could I turn that down by not to comply?

So I let go of li´ll Nicky and gave him a scowl.

"What the hell is going on here?!"  
Jackson thundered on, looking from me to Nick and back to me.

"Nothing Sir." That's it airman, keep it smooth.

"He knocked me of the wall, sir!" Well there goes sticking up for each other.  
I glanced sideways at the kid, only realizing I stood at attention, so I relaxed a bit, difficult as it was with the rage thundering through my entire body.  
What a wimp!

At the look on Principal Jackson´s face, that was his thought exactly. "Follow me!"

So here we are, both Nicky and me, sitting at attention.

I think Jackson put me here more because of the broken nose then  
slamming Nick up the wall.  
Nicky is here, well because he is a sneak, a whimpering little turd of a mommas boy.

I don't think the principal like him much.

I miss the Air Force.

The solidarity amongst the people there.

That is what I miss most, especially at my last outpost, under Cheyenne Mountain.

I got the privilege to work with some of the finest people in this, and other universes as well.

We stood up for each other.

We respected each other.

Most important, we were there for each other.

Nobody got left behind

But lately, I get the feeling that nobody is there for me.

Has things really changed so much on my… Jack´s team?

On SG1, that nobody got each others backs? Got my back?  
I know it´s the wrong way to think, I mean, I am the embarrassing love child of the SGC and the Asgaard.

I don't really exist as any other then the far out relative of one Col. J. O´Neill.

No, I got my own back, and that's the way I'm going to live from now on.

I can do that.

I can do the Academy again, this time even better, knowing what's ahead of me.

I can work my way up to a full bird colonel again, this time with out the casualties.

This time, without the loss of my family.

`Cause, I won't get any.

I can do that.

I have to.

I'm on my own.

Sweet.

Not.

***

Oh man, how long do I have to sit here?!  
It's so…boring!  
…Hey, something is happening.

My watch tells me I have only been here half an hour, are we already free to go?

No I doubt it, but something is surely happening.

Principal Jackson is back, talking to Miss Sung, the teacher babysitting us.

They both looks my way and I get the urge to look behind me.

He mumbles something in a low voice and she nods and steep a small step back.

"Mr. O´Neill, if you'll be so kind to follow me, please?"

I know I look a little dumbfound, but I had no idea of what was going on, and I really don't like not knowing, you know.

Maybe he could sense my hesitating or maybe he just wanted to rub it in on the other kids. I doubt it's the latter, but it would be cool if that was the case, wouldn't it?

A smile crepes up on his face when he said; "I´ve talked to Mr. Nielson who confirm your story. Your free to go." Mr. Nielson, our gym teacher, had backed up my story.  
Cool. So maybe there´s still was hope for this school.  
I can't help but to look at Nicky as I steep past him.  
It doesn't look like he's going anywhere soon.  
And he looks a little pissed of to.

Well, tough luck geek boy, if you hadn't been such an ass,  
maybe I would have helped you…

The principal's voice pulls me back from my self-rigtius thoughts, as I got up to him.

"Your uncle is here to see you son."  
I look up at him. My uncle?

He smiles and pads me on the back.  
My uncle?  
I don't have any uncle, my uncle Pete died last year at the age of 87.  
I hope not it is he who's here for me…

"My…uncle?" I ask, trying not to sound to surprised.

"Yes, he said he came personally this time. Something about the Air Force needing their car's or something." There was a twinkle in his eyes as he said that.

Jack! It could only be Jack.

I smiled, shrugging. "He's probably right."  
I looked back at Nicky. It was really just as unfair that he was there as I had.  
So I looked up, knowing that I would probably regret my act later on.

As we steeped outside in the hall, I stopped in front of the smiling man.

"You know principal Jackson… Nicky really didn't do anything wrong…"  
We both looked back through the looking glass in the door.

"I know that, Jonathan." I looked up at him, surprised.

I had been right about the principal just didn't like Nick?

He looked back at me.

"I just think he needs to think over his actions a little more…" I smiled.

"I'm sure your right, sir. But maybe he needs to be reminded of what just exactly those actions were?" He looked back in the quiet class.

"Maybe your right." He looked back again to catch my eyes. "Your uncle is waiting on the parking lot, you better get going, son."

I smiled and turned to the exit.

As I reached the door I turned to Jackson again.

As I had expected, he stood and looked through the glass, no doubly contemplaining his next move. I know the principal had been in the service, and he was very exited when I told him about my future "dreams" in the AF.

He saw action in `Nam but retired 5 years after coming home. A bullet in his leg had made sure he never saw the frontline closer then what TV could provide.  
After 5 years, he had had enough of bureaucracy and being a deskjocky.  
(Not that I blame him, I know how much that suck! Being changed to a desk a year after my little crack-my-head-open-in-a-country-the-gove

rnment-had-no-buisness-to-visit-in-the-first-place, can do such things to a man… )  
And now, almost 30 years after, Jerome Jackson was one hell of a principal.

"Hey Principal Jackson." I called.

He looked my way.

"One small step, one giant leap and all…"

He smiled and understood.

Taking baby steeps was the way forward, even to respect and loyalty.  
I turned my way and got out side.

With a smile on my lips I recognized the truck and the tall figure leaning up against it in the afternoon sun. He looked up just as I stepped out, not at all surprised to see me. He just smiled and stood straight, looking over the school yard.

Unconscious of doing so, he cheeked for danger, unexpected surprises, people and well, knowing Jack the way I do, maybe any hotties in the immediate area.

Trust me, Jack, there´ s no one that would fall in your taste.

While he was looking for danger to me, I did the same for him.

I got your back, Jack.

**Chapter 2: Me Myself and the General.**

***  
"Hello Jack." I said as I took his hand in mine.

I'd never thought it would be this easy, I mean, I've been with... Myself, before, the robots and the entity thingy…and well lets face it, we didn't exactly hit it of.

But this, I don't know, I just had a good feeling about it.

I think Jack felt it too.

"John." He said with a sincere smile. "How´r ya doin´?"  
I smiled, recognizing this as Jack's attempt to do small talk.  
We both suck at it, but hey, don't say I didn't try.

"Fine. Just got out of detention."  
It didn't seem to come as a surprise to him.  
"I'm tellin´ ya, it takes nothing to get in there these days!"

He grinned a little at that.  
"Right. I heard what you did… I take it there's no place for heroes in high school?"

Damn, of cause he knew, he had after all talked to principal Jackson…  
I should have known better then to think Jack didn't know.

"Tell me about it! It's dog eat dog in there!" I jerked my thumb towards the school.  
Might as well take the bull by the horns, right? And what could he do about it? Scold me?  
That would be like, scolding himself. Too weird I tell ya.

And he knew it too, so he smiled again, and then I saw it; I had no idea my smiles used to be this creepy!  
Or maybe it´s just because I know that that's how I'm going to smile somewhere in the near future.  
That's just plain scary!

"So, what's up?" I asked, hoping to get rid of those mental pictures my brain came up with…

Jack got a serious look on this face though he still smiled. He slipped the sunglasses back on, and I knew something was terrible wrong.  
"Get in." he said and walked around the car and got in.

There was something rotten in the state of O'Neill.

He didn't utter a word before we were on the interstate.  
"Where are we going?" I asked to break the silence.

He looked in the rear-view mirror and turned up the music so I just barely could hear him.  
I can't believe I've ever been that paranoid, but I recognized it as what it was: a precaution.  
Jack was being extra cautious, and for some reason, he thought we were being followed.

"We're going to the SGC. Hammond will brief you there. Suffice it to say, we need your help."

I nodded, and stayed quiet for the rest of the way. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what they needed my help for, I had been out of the loop for little over a month, and they still had Jack.  
What could I do?  
Unless there was a Goa´uld on the loose and they needed me to infiltrate…  
Or maybe it was Cassandra, maybe something was wrong with her at her school and somehow I was the only one to get in there…

God I hate not knowing and I could feel the adrenalin kick in, and my heart thudded away in a heart stopping speed. Pardon the pun.  
Point is, I didn't like it one bit and I knew Jack would brief me if it was at all possible.  
Apparently, it wasn't, and we were most likely bugged.

Several names came up in my head, names of organization that could do that;  
NID, FBI, CIA… The list was longer then Daniel's medical chart!

I tried to keep calm and not to go ahead of my self, that would be no help at all.  
No, I had to keep my cool, and just wait and trust Jack to tell me what he could when he could.

***  
When we arrived at Cheyenne Mountain, it was like coming home after a very long journey to a foreign country:  
Everything was as it always had been, security tight as a teacher's butt, the travel down to Hammond's office was as long as always, and the ID badge I had been given at the front gate, bounced on the front of my chest with every step I took.

Jack hadn't said anything after the car and I hadn't asked.

There were something wrong under that mountain; I could feel it in the air. All the SF´s were their usual selves and the marines we meet on our way down grunted something unintelligible, and moved on.

But what was real odd, was the total lack of old team members. I know we haven't exactly been keeping in touch lately, but this was weird. I had at least thought they would be here to greet me.  
But they weren't even there under the briefing - which most likely meant that this would be a secret operation. That didn't bode well.

At least general Hammond was there and he looked good.  
I couldn't help but smile as his jovial voice echoed beyond the office door.  
Jack opened the door and walked in.

"He's here Sir."

George got up and greeted us both, Jack with a nod and me with a warm handshake.

"It"s good to see you, son." He said. My smile grew a little as I thanked him, but I couldn't stand it much longer. They both knew that.

"Sit down, colonel, John."

It was awfully familiar to sit there, alone (well almost alone), waiting to be briefed. The only thing missing was Thor to beam down and tell us our instructions for the black op.  
No I didn't like it one bit, I still remember the kids faces when I did my little act on Tollana. It was like telling a child that Santa was grandpa with a big beard. Their world almost shattered.  
I think I maybe should be flattered that they had such high thoughts of me, but knowing that that mental image is gone; well it's a little hurting to tell you the truth. Its It's not like I wanted them to think of me as something special, it's enough the young airmen think of SG1, me, as the missing Messiah, but it was nice to at least to have their faith in me.

I hope that faith is back where it should be, on Jack, but the bad taste will always be in both our mouths.

"So, John," Hammond began, cutting to the chase, knowing small talk would serve him nothing with me.  
Not now. "I'm sure you want to know why you're here, right?"'

I took a deep breath and nodded. "That would be nice sir, yes." I looked him straight in the eye, and thankfully, he kept my stare. Apparently, George had no problem with me being…well, a replica.  
Maybe that was why SG1 wasn't here. They're still freaked out by this whole, doppelgänger concept.  
Well, then I might have to put a few things straight for them. But that had to be later.

"Early Monday morning, SG1 departed to a planet designated as SFE-294, also known as Haribo. Soon after arriving on the planet, SG1 was under attack and captured."

I looked over at Jack.

If SG1 was captured, why was he here?

Hammond continued:

"Dr. Jackson found a way to communicate with the people who apparently are at the stage as Europe was in the middle age. There high priest was willing to let SG1 loose, in return for something else."

This time Jack cut in;

"They want kids, John."

His voice was cold as ice, and a chill ran down my spine: Children in trade for SG1?

"And that's where I come in?" I asked, already knowing what was coming.

Hammond looked down, not liking what they had come up with, but also knowing it was the only  
way around it.

"What happened if they don't get what they want?" I really didn't wanted to know, I really didn't,  
but knowing that I had to get all the facts, I asked anyway.

"Carter, Daniel and Teal´c gets toasted."

Crap!  
I didn't want to know.

"What about the Marines?"

Jack shook his head.  
"No, they might be a little behind, but our good friends the Asgard have a protection treaty for this planet.  
We can't do anything but go under cover and get the kids out of there."

So Jack had already been in contact with the little grey guys, and their double standard ethics.  
I can almost hear their monotonic voices; it is most unfortunate O'Neill, but there is nothing we can do.  
Don't get me wrong; I love those guys, but sometimes….  
General Hammond's voice cut in on my train of thoughts;

"The natives on the planet are very much like us on Earth and the soil is filled with Nacquada, so you can see why we would like to keep a good relationship to them."

At that time I'm pretty sure my eyebrows hit my hairline;

"What?! With all due respect sir, no I can't! They trade people, kids, like merchandise on a flea market!  
Why would we even think of keeping a good relationship to them?!"

Jack had gotten unusually quiet at this moment and the look on Hammonds face told me that he had already heard that argument before. Jack had already made it.

"What aren't you telling me?"

Hammond sighted deeply and said; "Sit down John."

Oh… I was up on my feet.  
I keep forgetting that I can do that without the pain in the knees.  
That is actually one of the cool things about this whole clone gig.  
I can do things I haven't done in years!

I did as he said and waited for the other shoe to drop.  
"The native legend tells about some sort of a weapon, so powerful it can destroy mother ships in orbit of the planets. We'd like to get a look at that." Hammond continued.  
I could almost feel the famous shoe land on top of my head.  
Of course… I could slap myself for not seeing that coming.  
Actually I think I did slap myself, before looking up again.

"And how do we know that this, LEGEND, is telling the truth?"

Jack looked over at me with a blank expression that could fool everybody outside of this little office.

"Jack?"

He rubbed a hand over his face.  
"We saw the debris of a fallen mother ship on our way to the village where the kids are being held prisoner .They won't tell us more about it. Daniel says it's for real."

Double crap!

"That's why you won't go in full blazes. You wouldn't stand a chance."  
The silence from both of them was answers enough.

"Great."

**

So, the plan was, I was the bait to free SG1, and then I had 24 hours to get my ass back to the gate, call in and call SG13 so they could start the negotiations. What I really wanted to know, but nobody could answer for me, was, why did the inhabitants on Haribo, want kids? The answers I could come up with, was not satisfactory enough to accept.

I stood with Jack in the armoury, and got my knife, 9mill, ammo enough to start a small war, and still I missed the weight and safety the P90 used to provide me with. There was no way I could go in there with a small canon dangling around my neck, where would the covert be then? No, this was what I had to do with… I of course also had hairpins, matches, duck tape, a ball-point-pen and notepad, water ect… you know, the usual stuff nobody thinks of harmful.

The words between Jack and I had been sparse and unnecessary. After a health check in the infirmary, we had gone down to get my uniform (credit to Jack, he didn't laugh when I had to borrow clothing from the women's department so they could fit.( 5" 1 really SUCKS!) But, I knew what was on his mind.

"Was there anything you could have done to prevent them being taken?" I said, knowing he was beating him self up over it.  
He just looked at me with angry eyes.

"Don't psych me, okay?"

Sometimes, I really don't like that guy.

***  
Standing in front of the Gate again, as it spun to life and the big KAWOOOSH! shot through the air,  
I realized just how much I had missed gate traveling. The overwhelming excitement almost drowned my concentration for the mission.  
As General Hammond gave us a 'Go!' and we headed up the ramp, I could feel my knees wobble and almost giving under beneath me. I looked over at Jack who stood with his P90 and looked both concentrated and amused.

Yeah well, backatchya, old man!

I gave him a nod and we stepped through the gate.

**Chapter 3: The Shadow Exploded. **

Stepping out of the Gate was a rush! I mean, I know I have done it thousands of times before, but after a month of knowing that it would be years before I could do it again, I had never realized just how much I had missed it. How much I had missed the woobley feeling in my knees before stepping in, the gut churning chill that comes after my atoms have been taken apart and then put together again in mere seconds. Hell, even the nausea had been missed!  
I couldn't help but to give a little chuckle and a smile as the wormhole closed again. I know Jack looked at me as if I had a screw loose, but then again, maybe I had. Maybe we both had, and maybe that was why he didn't comment on it. I know him too well.

"Okay, kid. You know the game, so don't embarrass your old man, okay?"

This was the part I had been trying to ignore after trying to talk Hammond out of it. Portraying as Jack's son was a little to creepy, groose and…well to close. I could never be like Charlie, so I chosed to ignore it. The reason behind all this was that SG1 was in danger and the ones who had them captive, wanted to switch over with the leader's, i.e. Jack's, son. Knowing I would step in, he hadn't told them he didn't had any.  
I had thought it over more then once after the briefing and knowing this was the way it had to go down, I didn't have to like it. I was the only one the SGC could let in and know they would see me again. I didn't like going in like this, not knowing what to expect, but there you have it.

My orders were simple; Go as Jack`s son, undercover. Get SG1 out, take their place, get some Intel on the place and get out unseen the next day. Piece of cake.  
I just had a lot of problemes with it, problemes I had voiced for Hammond and Jack, knowing they already knew of them and had calculated them in the risk assessment.  
Problems like: what would happen when the native of Haribo found there newest boytoy (eeks, I did not use that word!) from Earth was gone? What would they do with a trading of kids like that in the first place? Why was it so special to get the leader's kid? And so on and so forth. I had been wasting my breath. I was going, no matter what. The SGC needed SG1 and SG1 needed their freedom.  
Crap.

"Don´t push it, old-timer!"

He just smirked at me and started walking . I turned and saw what he was walking for and then I saw them; what I assumed was the people of Haribo. They all looked pretty harmless to me, but experience have taught me never to judge a book by its cover. Funny I should remember that now.  
My nose was still a bit sore after the run in with the Goon squard in gym class earlier that day.  
I quickly caught up to Jack and asked in a low voice : "Are these the Haribo people?"  
Recognizing the rhetorical question for what it was, he didn't answer. The natives came in on us in at fast pace and I had little time to push my hands in my pockets and bring up the teenage attitude I have been struggling with for the last month or so.  
I didn´t have many problem getting new friends, some way or another, I got very popular amongst the kids and the faculty. I first realised my mistake when a substitute asked me in a wonderous voice if I was sure I was only 16 years old.  
I guessed not many 16 year old kids discussed aerodynamics in physics class. It was just so dammed exciting, just like the old days back in the Academy. Funny that, before, I hid what my knowledge of certain things, like aerodynamics, to maintain my cover to get the kids to think.  
Now, I still did that, but for different reasons…  
So, after that little innocent comment, I toned down on the 45 year old self, and up on the kid in me. I'm sure some people would say that that shouldn't be that difficult , but you have no idea of how different kids are today from when I was a kid…well the first time I was a kid anyway.  
I mean, holy cow! Kids are mean today!  
I don't remember being that when I was there the first time around!

Anyway, the teenage front was up and so was my time working on it. The mini-parade of tall people wearing flobby hats and Robin Hood-alike clothing was not more than two meters away from us, wearing big, shining smiles. The man leading the flock opened his arms to welcome us.  
"O´Neill! You have held your word and returned!" Jack gave a small nod and smiled crisply.  
"Roan. This is John," he said, and without missing a beat, "my son."  
Roan the Hood and his merry men all looked at me like I was Neo the chosen one, all in awe and gasping. "He is indeed your blood, Colonel." Roan looked back at Jack, who still clutched his P90 like a lifeline. I wasn't the only one, who had a bad feeling about these people.  
"That he is. Now, we still have a deal?" Straight to business, that's the way we like it.  
Roan bowed and turned. "Follow me please. We have many things to discuss."

Roan and his tights lead us up a small road, to a town well secured behind an impressive white wall. I had to crane my neck to see to the top, it was that big, build by granite builders, to protect the town behind it and to intimidate any possible enemies, I'm sure. In every corner of the wall, there were a watch tower, guarded by 2 or 3 men, all armed with bows and swords. They were all dressed in tights; a skirt and some kind of animal skin over one bare shoulder where the arrow holster were held in place by a leather strap. What Roan and his merry bunch had lacked in intimidating appearance, these guys had in abundance. These were real live Vikings!  
Daniel must have had a field day in this place.  
My thoughts returned from my surroundings to my old team and friends.  
I hoped to hell that they were okay, and if they were not I would bring Ragnerok to this village, that's for sure. Nobody messes with my team and get's away with it!

***  
"Is it true that Thor have blessed you with his friendship? That you have flown his chariot with his goats taut in front, among the Valkyries and been blessed with the mighty Odin's presence?"  
The questions were fired very rapidly at Jack after entering the big circle that represented the village Kile.  
The town or village, behind the walls, was a busy place; people everywhere, women haggling prices over something that looked a lot like chickens, different colours of fabrics, tobacco, spices, food, and other animals. It looked like it was market day and kids were scattered around, playing, yelling and laughing while bumping into people, some landing flat on their backsides. Most of them got up and ran along, and some of the smaller ones started to cry until either somebody came and lifted them up or it was clear to them that nobody reacted, so they got up by themselves, sniffling a bit and then ran after the other kids, forgetting the pain in their rump.  
Some of them, most of them, wore clogs and where making small sparks as the metal hit the cobble stones while the minority of the kids had either bare feet or moccasins-like skin on their feets, not making a sound when they came up behind you.  
I saw a small kid, maybe, 10-11 years old, wearing skin on his feet, and the same Robin Hood clothing as Roan had on, sneak up behind a big man, and digging his hand down the mans pocket, and quickly getting what he wanted and ran away. The man never saw it coming.  
I had smiled a little at that, checking my own pockets. The kid was properly hungry and was smart enough to find a way to make a different for himself. Good for him.  
I also couldn´t help but smile at the questions that was tossed Jack's way.  
Poor guy, all he wanted was to get his team free and then head home, leaving me here to my own devices. Well, almost. I still had a back up plan, just in case.  
You never really fail with C4, do you?

"Listen, all I want is to get my team back, okay. Now, we had an agreement. I did my part, now it's your turn. I want to see my people."  
Jack's patience had finally run out. I must say, he lasted longer then I had thought…  
The questioning bunch backed down after his little outburst, and another group of elders came forward, sitting in impressive big chairs. A woman dressed in what I only assumed was some sort of a robe, presumingly in order to show her position in the community ... Hell, I had no idea of who or what she was, except for being a bit scary, vaguely reminding me of an older Carrie White on Prom Night! Anyway, she stepped forward and eyed first me then Jack critically.

"Why, sire, are you so willingly giving your son over? After what Dr. Jackson told me, your kind put your children above anything else…" Daniel and his big mouth!  
Jack was silent for a moment, trying to come up with an answer that was diplomatic correct, but knowing that diplomacy wasn't really Jack's strong side, I prepared me for the worst;

"Your right Ma' am. We do, and that is why we hesitated to do this. But in respect to you and your ways, we saw it necessary to give up John." Carrie eyed him suspiciously.

"You want our soil, yes?" Damn, Carrie was sharp!

"Well, not exactly…we'd like to trade with you, for something in your soil." Jack looked vaguely superior as he stood there, looking down at Carrie and her gang, P90 hanging loose over his chest, finger resting on the tricker, a gun and a knife on each hip. The SGC's very own mini Rambo – God, the man was a cliché to look at! Good to know that Jack had a cover of deception as well. Fubbery has always been Jack's middle name, and I must say, he'd kept it in good care.  
But this wasn't the time nor the place to play dumb, and we both knew it. The hair on the back of my, and Jack's neck too I guess, were rising like the hackles on a dog.

"And for this…" she fished for a name and Jack quipped in "Naquadah". She nodded.

"For this Naquadah, you are willing to trade your first born son?" She was setting things straight, and the more she did that, the less sure I was on a diplomatic relationship with these people.  
Jack was getting more and more hesitant with his positive attitude, knowing he was in big doo-doo.

"Well…when you put it like that..." she cut him of before he could say anything else.

"I do not believe that someone who would trade a boy for something in the soil, would be bestowed with the blessing of the Gods!"  
There was lightning in Carries light blue eyes and her fair skin blushed to a deep red colour and I half expected stones to land on top of the roof any minute.  
Things were shaping up to be a real bad day and we hadn't seen the shadows of SG1 yet.  
A very bad day, indeed.

One of Carrie's psychophans stepped out and pointed a crooky finger at us and in a high pitched voice almost screamed; "Uværdig!" huh?  
I looked up at Jack, searching my brain for where I had heard that before.  
I'm pretty sure granma' had used that word before.  
Grandma Elly Johanson was daughter of Joseph Johanson who came to Ireland in the late 1870's from Sweden and her superstitious believes in wood-people and elves had descended to my…well, our mom and I…dammit, WE, had heard all the urban legends of the people up north.  
I used to love to hear about the north people and there believes in Thor and Odin and the rest of the gang…that was; until I meet them in real life and the image of the big brave Viking god kinda smoldred a bit.  
Jack looked just as surprised as me just as another one chimed in;" Unworthy!" and another one "Jætter!" and yet another "Ethins!" Well, at least that sounded perversely familiar.  
"What?!" It hit us at the same time. I guess I should get used to that.  
We looked at each other before Jack, silver tongued as he was, tried to launch himself in to a quick explanation. But how to explain, that we tried to bluff them, without seeing there bluff?  
"Oh no-no-no-no-no!" No, I didn't think so.  
"This is all a big misunderstanding…" to judge by the big drawn swords, they didn't buy it.  
"This is sooo Daniels department…" he muttered. Ya' think!?  
"Step forward, boy." Scary Carrie smiled the smile of a Alsatian.  
"Ehh…What?" Okay, the linguistic skills is apparently running in the blood or something.  
"It is fine. Come, step forward." I really didn't like this, but knowing that this might be the only way of getting Jack and the kids free, I went along, hesitating, keeping up the cover of a frighten teen. "We will not harm you. Come with me." I stopped.  
"What about J..Dad?"  
Nice catch O´Neill.  
Again with the smile, Scary Carrie touched my shoulder and gently led me away from Jack.  
"Your father will learn to respect his blood." Okay, that could mean a bunch of more or less nasty things. My imagination kinda ran crazy for a split second, and different scenarios came to mind; Like, he had to learn not to swap kids for things like Naquadah, or, something that involved real blood and big nasty swords and spears. Something I didn't really needed Jack to learn more about. The worst thing was that I knew the exact same thoughts and images ran through Jack's mind.  
"Your not going to hurt him, are you?" See, one of the good things with this body is that you can ask questions that would make a grown man look weak.  
What sucks is, the answer:  
"Of cause not. Don't you worry, your father will be fine!" the patronising and Lets-Not-Scare-The-Boy voice that always has told me that adults are a bunch of lying scumbags.

She lead me away, out of the room and building that now housed Jack, over a farmyard, to a long, low thatched house that had a smoking chimney and a heavy reek of cow-dung.  
Inside, my eyes started to water over from the smell of smoke and dung, the instant I stepped through the door. In one end stood a coupla cows, chewing lazy on some fresh smelling grass, some pigs, oinking away in there fold, and in the other end there was a fireplace with a big pot of something, simmering.  
A girl was sitting on the side, chopping some vegetables. She looked up as Scary Carrie came chattering in. She stood up immediately, coming over. She kept looking down at her feet, not once meeting the hag behind me or my own eyes. The girl couldn't be more then 12 or 13 and stood ready, waiting. "Trine, this is our guest. Make sure he has a good place to sleep near the cows and that he gets a good meal." Trine bowed, and muttered a "Yes my lady. Thank you."  
She skittered down to the cows, presumingly to make me a place to sleep.  
"Who's that?" I asked, needing to know who to thank.  
Carrie the Hag looked up at me and said; "That is Trine, our thrall. She has been with us since she was 6 summers old and knows her place. She will not bother you."  
That was a rather odd presentation, but again, this was really Daniels department.  
He really would have had a field day in this place!  
"Thrall?" I asked, not liking the sound of that.  
"Yes." She looked up at me like I had asked of something even a child should know. She might have been older then me, even in my old body, but I still towered over her with at least 7 inches. Then it finally dawned upon her. "You do not have thralls in your kingdom?" Kingdom?  
"Eh that would be a no. As bad as we might look, we do not sell and buy people."  
She looked at me quizzically. Well, I can't exactly say I blame her:  
I was a walking contradiction.  
"But…you were swapped for those of knowledge?" Those of knowledge?  
That could only be the kids, Daniel, Carter and Teal´c.  
"Well…that's complicated."  
Crap, what these people had wanted was enough to cut all diplomatic ties, but what we would have done in return, could have been a cause of war. It sucked. A lot.  
Carrie nodded; "Your father will explain it." and went on with making the stew.

Well, at least that was a good sign, that meant that Jack would at least be alive to explain.

I looked around in the semi dark house. "So…what can I call you?" I asked, trying to break the ice. I guessed there would have been a few frowns from Hammond, if I kept calling her Carrie.

She looked up and blinked, then a light went on. "Ohh no, where are my manners? Here I have a prince in my house and I don't even introduce myself!" Prince?  
She quickly came to her feet and bowed in front of me.  
"My name is Laila, daughter of Leon, wife of Beiwulf, son of Teron, father of..." Yaddah!  
Somewhere in her rambling, it hit me: I was supposed to be son of Jack, who was "a great and powerful leader", therefore, I was the prince.  
Damn!  
What had Hammond and Jack been thinking, wrapping this one up?!  
It was bound to go FUBAR, it was just a matter of time!  
"Okay, Leila it is then." She smiled at my cutting on her words.  
"John." I said and stretched out me hand. She looked at it in a curious manner so I just waited for it to connect on her. Slowly, she got it and I took her hand and smiled. "  
That's it. First step to a diplomatic relationship." That was apparently the wrong thing to say, 'cause she quickly pulled her hand from me and backed away. "What's wrong?"  
I tried not to sound to disappointed and hoping to hell that I hadn't screwed more up then good was.

"It is not my place to do the negotiations. This is not the hall of friendship." Again, something that sounded familiar, and I briefly wondered if Thor and his gang had put a hall of something on every Asgaard protected planet. Wondered where it was on Earth…  
"Okay. Don´t worry, its just a figure of speak." I quickly reassured her.  
She seemed to relax a bit, turning back to the stew, casting worried glances my way once a while.  
I looked around. What to do? What I really wanted was to get Jacks sorry ass and the rest of SG1 and holler "retreat!" all the way to the gate.  
Guessed that was out of the question.

"Leila, may I ask you something?" I said, trying not to create another scene. She wiped her hands in something like a washcloth.  
"Yes, of cause, your highness." I know I winced at that, I never got used to the whole worship thingy that usually followed with stepping through the gate, and this majesty-thing,  
I just knew it wouldn't hang.  
"John. Call me John." I said, hoping to hell she would do just that.  
She nodded once, and then looked at me, expectantly.  
"How are my father's people?" She smiled.  
"They are your people as well, are they not?" She had a point.  
"Yes. Of cause. I just…Well, my father are the leader of my people so I just…" I trailed of, seeing the glint of humor in her eyes. Scary Carrie had made a joke. On me. Huh, fancy that.  
"Your people are well taken care of Prince John. Fear not." I nodded.  
I guess small step is what works, even here.  
"Thank you." She smiled and nodded again. Had she been hanging around the T-dog lately?  
"So, Leila, what is your role in this little masquerade?" The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about it. O´Neills mouth, inset foot!  
She looked up with a blank expression.  
"I…do not understand that word…"  
Whew!  
"I mean, what is your role in the community?" I said, without to much stuttering.  
I wasn't sure if it worked, 'cause she smiled that smile again, and Scary Carrie was back in the building. She straightened up and walked me outside, which I was grateful for. My eyes were burning, and I'd hate to cry in front of a woman. Well, I hate crying, period, but that was another chapter in MacKensey's book of Screwed-up things in Col. J. O´Neill mind.  
"I am the healer of this village." A doc. Cool. As long as she didn't have any nasty needles, that is.  
"A healer? What does that mean?" I had to be sure she wasn't a bone-tossing, sign-seeing, talking-to-the-gods- fruitcake, just in case. I mean, it looked like she had plans for me to stay with her for at least a night. I like to know what kind of people I'm sleeping with…Ehh, that came out the wrong way. For crying out loud, you know what I mean!  
"You do not have healers on your world?" Again with the blank expression. She was a bit of an oddball, most of the time she scared me half to death just by being near me, and other times, like now, she seemed almost innocent and curius, like a child.  
"Sure. I'm just not sure of what you do exactly, you see?" Nope, she didn't.  
"I mean, our healers are called doctors, and they help us get better when we are sick. Is that what you do?" we were outside in the sun now, and I could hear the busy sounds from the marked place.  
She nodded and added slowly; "Yes, I can do that to some diseases. But I have other purposes as well." Okay, now we were going somewhere!  
"Like what?"  
She smiled and took a handful of dirt and showed it up to my face.  
"What is this?" she asked. I stepped a bit back, getting the dirt out of my face. I looked at her, expecting her to grow bunny ears or something, then down at the dirt, made a face and blew a little on it. I don't really know why, I just did.  
She smiled still and I shrugged; "I dunno, dirt?"  
She took her hand down a little, still smiling a knowing smile.  
"Yes, it is." O-oookay… I waited for the rest of the explanation, almost expecting her to turn a Yoda on me or something…Many secrets contains the dirt, yes. To me, the dirt reveal its secrets, if it pleases. But that didn't exactly happen…  
"You have this on your planet as well?"  
"Ehh, yeah…?" this was getting more and more weird by the minute  
"It is fantastic, is it not?"  
Okay, maybe we were going nowhere anyway.  
"Yes, it's…swell."  
She smiled.  
"This is the foundation of life, you know that?"  
"So they say." I know I sounded a little inpatient, but come on…  
"Your Father seems to have forgotten."  
"Forgotten what exactly?" If they were turning some weird dirt-test crap on Jack…  
She sighed and sat down on a big log.  
"He has forgotten about the soil. About the life he wants to take away from us." She looked up at me and continued; "He think that one can give and take life as one pleases. One cannot." Okay, maybe she was turning a little Yoda on me…  
"You're talking about the Naquada. In your soil?" Bingo! She nodded.  
"Yes. It is not our…Naquada, nor is it our soil to give away. Not even for the first born son of a leader." I sat down beside her and looked over the pigsty and dunghill that took the view from the rest of the town. Despite the smell of summer warm poo, it was much better then the semi lit smokehouse. Beside, Trine the thrall creped me out, she was too quiet for a kid, it wasn't natural.  
"You know Leila… you're doing the exact same thing with that girl inside the house." I dared my self to point out. She looked at me like I had slapped her across the face or something.  
"We do not sell our boys for property!" I winced a little, she didn't get the message.  
"Then what's the story of Trine?"  
She calmed down a bit.  
"Trine was send out when she was a young girl. Her family needed the cows to stand through the winter. Now she is here to help her family. Beside, she is a mere girl, not like a boy, like you."

Ahh the old ghost of discrimination… How's that working out for ya?

"Leila can't you see it? It's the same damn thing!"  
That's it O´Neill, if you keep repeating that you might even believe it your self!  
"She is worth just as much as you or me. You can't trade people like that!"  
All of a sudden she stood up and looked me straight in the eyes:  
"We shall discuss this no further." And she walked back in the house, the conversation over.  
And I never got any wiser about Jack and the kids. This was shaping up to be a real bad day.

***  
**Chapter 4: Bringing Out The Big Guns.**

As the sun got more and more hold of the day and warmed up the earth, the smell of dung grew stronger. I couldn't stand the smell anymore and took of. I had to get some more intel on Jack and the kids, spring them and then get the hell out of dodge!  
The questions swirled away in my mind, I was going to kick Jack's ass when I saw him! This was totally fucked up, no doubt that he hadn't told me everything he knew of this place. The anger rose in me as I quietly took off. Leila and Trine were still in the house, making dinner I guess, so the chances of being caught were less than nil. The place around the house was nice and green, with piles of wood stacked at the end of the house and a cow was tied to a pole, chewing lazily on some grass in the warm midday. Everything seemed idyllic and peaceful, not the least like some place where the people that knew they were holding peaceful travelers against their will.  
The market was still going on and I knew I had to blend in.  
But how to blend in when your wearing an SGC field uniform on an alien planet?  
That was the easy part of it.  
After grapping a rope from one of the booths, I easily slipped in and out of the busy crowd. I could skim the big building that served as city hall or what ever the hell it served as, that both Jack and I had been brought to earlier. I doubted they would still keep him there, but it was my only lead so far. If he wasn't there, I had a pretty good idea of where they had brought him. Question was where did these middle age people keep their prisons? Think O'Neill, THINK! I knew I had the answer somewhere, what was it? Was it something Daniel had said once? No…The Unas! The town square! The whole chained up to a pole thing!  
I headed for the city hall thing-what-ever. I headed for the city hall thing, more assured now that I had a backup plan to go with.  
Nobody really paid me much attention and I was at the big building in no time. I looked around, making sure nobody followed or was watching me, and I slipped inside. The place looked deserted so I quickly went back to the room that had held us earlier. No sign of Jack, and better yet, no sign of struggle. Well, he would be more than stupid, getting himself in trouble when the rest of us depended on him to do the right thing. But dammit, I knew Jack, and sometimes, trouble just rained down on him, no matter what he… WE did. Ironic enough, I had the exactly same problem.

Just then, as thoughts raced through my head, I heard footsteps and low voices. Quickly, as quiet as I could, I hid away, behind a big pillar. Funny, I hadn't really noticed the place before, but then again, I had been the misbehaving-bad-attitude-teenager back then and hadn't really thought on anything but where the kids were and whatever the hell these good people had in mind for us.  
I guess I must be slipping, I remember seeing what was left of the motherships, the debris still laying around on the ground as we went to town, but…  
The people walking by shook me out of my self musing, and I heard a snatch of their conversation; "Colonel O'Neill er en stædig mand, men han vil blive et stærkt aktiv for os hvis…" Crap, where the hell was Daniel when you needed him!  
Well, I understood the first part; they were talking about Jack… My thoughts went back to Daniel and the kids. Where were they? Were they okay? I had a feeling about these people, that they weren't your everyday alien-Vikings and that they weren't as friendly as the people on the other Asgaard protected planets we had encounted so far.  
Call me paranoid, but they just rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't trust them one bit.  
As the two tall and very well - dressed renaissance men who had been talking about Jack walked by, I went after them. Slipping back into black ops mode gave me a perverse kick and I briefly wondered just what the hell was wrong with my life. What's wrong O'Neill, is that you are lurking in the shadows on some remote alien planet, spying on gloomy middle aged aliens, trying to find the original you and kids who look older than you but really aren't except on the big ass, former enemy Jaffa, whom all just happen to be some of your best friends, even though they really haven't talked to you for over a month. It's not only wrong and weird, it's also pathetic! You need a life O'Neill. Crap, I really had to stop thinking. I blamed the school for suddenly putting these things in my, former very quiet and relaxed brain, and moved on.

It turned out that the guys I was following were on their way to lunch or whatever weekend wannabe renaissance people do when they don't kidnap Air Force colonels, so I turned around and went back the way they had come from. Why the hell these things never turn out like they do in TV, I have no idea. It would have been sweet if they had led me straight to Jack so I could figure out what the hell their plans were with him! But, noooo, why make it any easier for an old guy? Crap.

I crept on along the semi dark corridors, trying different doors and rooms, but not finding who I was looking for. What anybody needs so many rooms and different floors for, I have no idea, but as I came to what must have been door number 50, just to find it empty, my frustration level had reached its max. I had to get help, inside help.  
Goddammit, Jack I'm SO gonna kick your ass!  
It was as if that had become my mantra, to squeeze down my worries about the kids, this planet and this whole mission… I looked around, hoping to see somebody, anybody who could maybe help me. Nobody. I was completely alone. Well that had to change, so I turned around, trying to find somebody before they found me. I found stairs to what I only assumed was to the basement so I snatched a torch and quickly went down. I could hear faint voices, somebody talking, a few laughter and some singing as I got deeper down. The faint smell of food got stronger, and I briefly wondered why something smelling this good, was kept in the basement. I could smell a barbeque, the smoke of slightly burned meat… A thought made me stop. Just what kind of meat were they cooking?  
I stepped up the pace and quickly, I stood hidden just outside a door, where voices, music, laughter and the smell of food, came from. I carefully peeked inside and saw what passed as a kitchen, some old people and at least two young girls, working, singing and, one of the girls, dancing a merry dance with a very old man, who didn't have a tooth in his mouth. They all looked pretty harmless, so I looked around me, making sure I was alone, before carefully opening the door, doing my best as not to disturb them in what looked like a well deserved break, with a little fun and laughter. I looked around and saw something that looked like a piglet, slowly being grilled over an open fire.  
The smoke was lead away by a big open window, just above ground level, but the kitchen was still heavily filled with smoke. A big kettle was boiling lazily over something that looked like a primitive stove. Two elder and very big women were sitting and sewing and clapping at a big table, covered with different ingredients, vegetables and pots and pans. The young girl and geezer was dancing on the floor just in front of me, the last girl standing at the far wall, singing lightly and holding a puppy close to her chest. They all looked, maybe not happy, but as happy as the conditions allowed them to be. They were all smiling and laughing, but still, I recognized the signals their bodies was sending, without them even knowing so. The signals were of suppressed energy, the kind of energy all suppressed people have. The longing for something, freedom, love, what ever, that every human being wants, some maybe even without knowing so.  
I couldn't help but smile as the old geezer got a little frisky with the girl, who obvious saw him as harmless and just put his wandering hands back up on her back. The man laughed a toothless laugh, but everybody froze almost simultaneously when the singing ended abruptly:  
I had been spotted.

If you play your card right O'Neill, you might get out of this mess with a guide.

"Uhm… hi!" I really need some linguistic classes, maybe English for beginners, when I get back to school, I mean, even Teal'c have a better English then me, and he's a freakin' alien!

Almost as if on cue, they all dropped to the floor, not looking up at me. My little wave didn't do me any good as their faces was not to the ground, so I quickly got to the old man, helping him up. Such an old man shouldn't have to be on the ground, none of them should. "No, don't do that for crying out loud, come on, get up!" I said, pulling the reluctant man on his now shaky feeds. Great, now he was scarred of me, I could see it in his eyes. It wasn't the first time I had seen that in somebody's eyes. I had seen it in Sara's eyes, one to often, waking up from a bad dream, with a scream.  
I helped him over to the nearby bench, not wanting to scare him more then necessary. I did the same with the girl who before had been dancing, but she didn't look quiet as scarred, thank god. But she was confused, no doubt about it, not really knowing what to do with her self as I let go of her arm. She stood still, looking me up, properly waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, I know how that feels, so I decided to come clean. "Uhm… do you… Ehh understand me?"  
This was still Daniel's field and he usually does it with the grace of a butterfly in a beautiful garden. I, on the other hand, was the famous elephant in the greenhouse, fumbling and stumbling me way through the conversation. Actually it felt more like a monologue, when none of them answered me, "Okay, listen I just wanted to hear if any of you maybe could help me find my te…ehh, friends and, father?" The girl still looked at me like I had grown a second head and the girl who before had been singing, slowly and hesitatingly sneaked up to the girl who just moments before had been dancing with the toothless Fred Astaire on the bench. She didn't look like she understood me either, but I think they tried to figure out what I wanted, because they both looked very concentrated. It was first then, as they stood beside each other, that I could see the resemblance. They looked like two drops of water, not twins, but indeed siblings. Indeed…I miss Teal'c. Great timing to get sentimental O'Neill! When did you get so mushy?!  
I tried again. "Uhm, you know, others like me…just, taller?" I took of the robe and showed them my uniform and tiptoed, showing heights. No reconnection. "Uhm, what about…" I showed the M5. Zip. What was there else? Maybe I should describe Carter, she usually make a memorable impression on young girls. "Uh, Carter? Short blond hair, pretty blue eyes?" Nothing. She would probably shoot me if she knew, but I made the universal known sign of a woman in front of me, but still nothing. "Tough crowd…" I mumbled, suddenly remembering Abydos!  
I made signs of glasses in front of my eyes, probably looking like a complete dork, and then I sneezed. And wonders of all wonders, the girls actually smiled, just a little, and suddenly, I saw reconnection in the singing girl's eyes. She sneezed once, looking at me, and then again and again. "Yes! Yes that's right, A-chuu!" I couldn't have been happier at that point of Daniel's eternal allergy. It get's worse when I travel. Thank you Daniel!  
I nodded and smiled emphatically, making sure she knew it was the right word.  
"Danil!" the former singing girl said with a big smile. The other shook her head, giving her a little knock in the ribs and corrected: "Daniel." Well I guess I know who's big sister here…  
"Dan-`yell." Lill'sis' tried again. "Daniel." The older tried again with a big patience, but still casting glances up to me once a while. Lil'sis tried again, very much concentrated: "Danyell!"  
Big sister accepted, not wanting to take more of my time, and nodded with a sigh.  
She looked at me again, expectantly. I smiled, but said, "You know where he is? Where they all are?" Slowly and unsure of herself, she placed a hand on my chest and said: "Daniel?"  
Crap, where had my manners gone?  
"No, I'm John." I placed my hand on hers and said again "John" just to make sure. I then placed her hand on her chest and looked questingly at her.  
"Daniel?" She almost asked and I shook my head.  
"No, I'm John, and you are?" I asked, emphasizing the question.  
"Ann?" She said and looked curious at me.  
I smiled and repeated her word. Then she placed her hand on her sister and said "Julie." I smiled. Ann and Julie that shouldn't be too difficult to remember.  
Ann went over to the old guy and placed her hand lightly on his shoulder and said "Tor-Leif." Thor?! Like little-grey-buddy- Thor? Cool!  
I smiled and Ann went over and stood behind the to big woman and placed first her hand on one of them and said "Marie." And on the other "Grete." Okay, these were names I could remember and pronounce. It wasn't always like that on other planets, and I always ended up screwing up in them and probably insulting the persons, but these, Ann, Julie, Thor-Life, Mary and Gretchen, I could remember those!

"Great! Now we all know each other names, now, can you tell me where they are? My friends that is…" Why I kept asking I didn't know, it was obvious they didn't have a clue of what I was talking about. "Great. I'm talking and you have no idea of what I'm talking about. It's like telling jokes to Teal'c! Not a bad word about the big guy, I love him like a brother, but he has an odd sense of humour, I mean, glinting beaks? I can get better conversations out of a dog then this, for crying out loud!" I knew I was rambling, but it seemed that just as I had gotten my hopes up, everything fell down on me again. I don't know why I keep getting 'em up, I always ends up getting disappointed…  
I smiled reassuringly, maybe more for my own sake, as Ann smiled at me, a very odd smile… reminding me of The Mona Lisa Smile, knowing but yet, ohh so very secretive.  
"What?" I asked, and yes I admit it, maybe just a little irritated, but I was going nowhere and fast. Or so it seemed.  
"You talk funny." What?! Well, I'll be dammed, big sis' had understood every word I had said, and probably played a joke on me. That seems to happen a lot around here…  
"You understands what I'm saying here?!" The smile disappeared again and she quickly looked down as if she had done something wrong. Darn, save it O'Neill, save it!  
"That's just great! Then maybe you can help me?" She looked up, her eyes on the verge of tears. "I'm sorry, Sire. I know who you are, and I will stand at your disposal." Erhh…yeah well that's one way go do it…  
"…Well, thank you Ann, but, ehh I don't need a servant or anything. I just need a little help finding my friends, that's all." I hoped she understood the difference, but I doubted it. But then again, I had been taking a lot of things for granted these last days, and it always ended up biting me in the ass. Or punching me at the nose or slamming me up in detention…  
"Will you help me?" Julie looked up at her sister, waiting for maybe a translation or maybe she also understood what we were saying. Ann looked at me and then nodded. "Yes Sire."  
I smiled and stretched out my hand. "Call me John!"

***

As I stood outside the dungeon gate, I could smell the hundred of years this place had been serving as prison. The stench was inhuman, the smell of years of sweat, excrements, diseases, rot… it all brought back memories I was not so fond of remembering, of other places like this, places that made Hadante look like the Four Seasons. I was dressed in some old rags from the old geezer who had borrowed my uniform, and the guards didn't look close enough to see who was under the hood. They opened the big gate to the cells that was supposed to contain SG1. Well, at lest the kids, Ann didn't know where Jack was held. I quickly stepped in, putting the tray with the 3 bowls of oatmeal de' grose and went over to release the kids from the chains around their wrists so they could eat. It was kinda dark in there, only one single torch lighting up one side of the big cell. Daniel was closest, and he didn't even notice it was me before I was at Carters side. "Sir?" she said in a horse voice. "It's me Carter. Don't try to speak just yet, okay? I got water to you all." She nodded and rubbed her sore wrist as soon as I was done. I was at Teal'cs side when Daniel spoke up: "John? Is that you?" I should had known that Daniel would speak up. "There you go Teal'c. Easy there" I said as he slit down the wall. I couldn't see what had happened to them, only Daniel was in half-light, Carter I could see her hair and Teal'c I could sense. But I couldn't sense him enough to know about his injuries. But I knew they where there. "You okay?" He grunted as he got down to the floor, then said :"I will be O'Neill. Thank you." Right. "Yeah Daniel, it's me, but keep it down okay?" I said as I walked over to him. I looked over at the gate, it was still close, but I had no idea of knowing how long. "Wow. I had no idea we were in that much trouble…" he almost whispered. I had to keep his spirits up, if Daniel first had a thought in his mind there was only one way from there.  
"Nahh, not really. I just missed you guys." Okay, even I knew that sounded lame. "Just helping the old man out a little." As soon as it had slipped my mouth I knew it was the wrong thing to say. "What's happened to Jack?" "The colonel alright?" "Where is Colonel O'Neill?" Well, I guess I should have been flattered or maybe just glad that the team had found the faith in Jack again, that they were worried about him, but I knew I didn't have much time, not enough time to explain at least. At that moment I could hear the locks being shut down and the gate opened again.  
"The secret behind a long life is good food. Enjoy your dinner, my masters and mistress." I said and left the cell before I was caught. I just hoped they would get some food and water.  
It was after all, the way out of this mess.  
As the gate was shut I heard Daniel's voice:  
"We must be in big trouble, since Hammond have brought out the big guns…"  
If you are, I mused on my way back to the kitchen, we all are, Daniel. We're a team.  
Now, it was time to find Jack. And I would kick his ass. After we got home.

_**Chapter 5: The Knight of Ni!**_

Aw Crap! This is not going as I had planed!

Not only was Teal'c in worse shape then I had ever anticipated, Carter was so weak she could barely stand up, and Daniel was losing hope and fast.  
And of course, as frosting on the big cake of crap, Jack was held somewhere else.

Some place I didn't knew of, and neither did Ann.

I hurried back towards the kitchen, keeping my eyes and ears open, hoping to maybe get a glimpse of Jack. No such luck, of cause.

Okay think O'Neill, this doesn't have to be as bad as you think, and there must be some way around this little obstacle. You've got a plan,and now you're sticking to that plan! So what if there have been someslight changes, it happens. A plan is only great if there's room forchanges. Crap, what you need, isn't a plan O'Neill, it's a goal. Andyou got it; find Jack and get him and the rest of SG-1 home, and thenlet them handle the diplomatic bull that will probably follow.

Hammond will understand.

Yep, I knew what to do.

Pice of cake, right?

As I entered the kitchen, Ann, Julie and Thor-Life was waiting, for meor the world to collapse, I wasn't sure, but to judge from their faces,it could have been either one of them.

"Lord John. Did you find your friends?" Ann asked, closing the door after me.  
I gave her a serious look.  
"Both yes and no Ann. I'm still looking for my father."  
She looked down and then over at Thor-Life.  
"I do not know where he is, my lord. I am sorry."

Well, don't beat your self up over it, kid!

"It's okay Ann, don't worry about it. We'll find him, somehow or another." I looked at Julie and the old man. "What is it exactly you guys do around this place?" Ann went over to her sister's side and gently laid her arm on Thor-Life's arm, giving it a squeeze. "Tor-Leifis our the maintenance man, he makes sure that everything is held in a solid place."  
Ahh the janitor, then?  
She smiled at him and then looked at her sister and then said; "Julie and I are servants for the council and their wishes."

Swell.

"Then you guys hear a lot of the stuff the council is talking about, right?"  
Ann looked like I had slapped her face or something, then explaining in very few words that they did not eavesdrop on the council.

Well, a boy can only dream right?

"Okay, what about seeing stuff?" No response, only a hard glare from Ann to me. "I mean, have you perhaps seen anything unusual these last few days?" She raised a eyebrow. "Well, except for my dad and his teamand, well me?"  
She just looked at me a few seconds, then turned around to face her sister and the geezer.  
"Lord John spørger om vi har set eller hørt noget usædvanligt de sidste par dage. Han leder efter sin fader."  
I guess she translated my request into… the Viking language or whatever, I wasn't sure of the language. It wasn't quite the same as grandma' had spoken in when she spoke of her parents' home in Sweden, but some of the words were almost the same.

Julie said something, apparently she hadn't seen anything, I knew from her universal shake on the head, but ol' Thor said something; Ann asked something and the old man talked some more.  
Ann turned around and looked at me, and to me it looked like she was having a hard time to translate for me.: "Tor-Leif says he might have seen your father."  
I beamed at her, "Really? Where? When?" She closed her eyes and a frown appeared in the front of her forehead. "Sorry…" I mumbled and let her get on with it:

"He said that he saw them take your Father, the Lord Colonel, to…" she looked back at Thor and asked something. He nodded and said something. She turned to me again.  
"He was taken to the hall of trial."

Another hall? What is it with these guys and halls?

"What will happen to him there?"  
She shook he head.

"We do not know that. It is forbidden to speak about, but…" she almost bit her tongue of, hoping she hadn't said that out loud.  
Too bad sweetheart, but you did, and I need to know:  
"But what?" She looked up, knowing I wouldn't let her of that easy. She whispered and moved closer to me, as if fearing her sister and Thor would listen in.  
"I know where it is being held, but I do not know what it is…" she trailed off, as if I knew what she was talking about. Which I didn't, of cause, but now didn't seem to be the place to ask questions as she continued:  
"Tor-Leif can take you no further than to the place of the rite, but you would have to be careful. I do not know what will happen if you are getting caught my lord, but I cannot risk the life of my sister and Tor-Leif for your quest." She looked down before continuing,"I am sorry my lord John, you may punish me ifyou will, but Julie is my only family and Tor-Leif has always takencare of us, when we were younger. Now, it is my turn to take theresponsibility and take care of them."  
She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.  
"I do not know who you are, Sire or where you are from, but I do have ears and eyes. I know you are someone important and so are your father…" Suddenly she knelt in front of me, blowing me even more away with her next words: " I wish you luck Sire, and blessing from the Gods. I know you are a man of honour and I will help you as much as I can. But I will not jeopardise my family."

I was completely dumbstruck. Such loyalty and honour from such a little girl that Ann was, was not natural and defiantly not what I had expected. Somehow I felt like a knight in an old movie, half expecting her to hand over the magic sword, to slay the evil dragon, threatening her village. What the hell does one say to such a mouthful? Especially when that one is me, Silver tongued O'Neill… Heck, I'm not even the original!

The kitchen was still completely quiet and I think I could hear some mice in the corner, scratching over the floor.  
I swallowed something and sat down in front of her.  
Ahh no cracking in the knees!

"Ann listen to me; I don't want to jeopardise anybody, you have already help me more then I could have asked for. I wish for the best for you guys, you're all great!"

Slick O'Neill, very slick!

"I'm grateful for anything you have done for me and my people, and on the behalf of my entire people, I thank you."

Not Sure Kinsey would agree, but to hell with him. Where the hell did that thought come from anyway?!

I mentally shook my head and cleared my mind. I looked at her and caught her eyes by tilting her head up to mine. I smiled at the sight, her eyes were still a little misty and the surprise was clear on her face, but she had caught it and understood it. I pulled her up and changed the subject before we got too sappy and out of control.

Damage control O'Neill, don't let this kid get to you!

I ruffled her hair and smiled again. "Okay, can your buddy Thor help me or not?"  
She smiled and straightened her hair again. "His name is Tor-Leif, and yes, he says he can, my Lord." I looked over at the man who now stoodn straight up. "Right." I looked back at Ann. "And it's John." This time she smiled bright and nodded slightly.  
"Yes, Sire." The girl had spunk, no doubt about it, so I just rolled my eyes and shook my head. We had a bird to find!

**  
It turned out that Tor-Leif was quite stealthy in his movements, which were quick and unnoticed to other people. We took off from the kitchen and he led me through the crowd of people that still filled the market area. Many of them was done with their business, dragging home their new and old stuff, some dragged pigs and cows along with them and some carried all the stuff they had been trying to sell all day. I didn't have much time to do a recon on my surroundings, I only saw a few cows standing tied to poles around the low houses, other places had pigs.

Just outside the kitchen door, Tor-Leif had some enormous horses tied to the wall. Before taking off I had ask Ann whom the horses belonged to. She had just said that they were working horses, belonging to the town. Apparently, the common people didn't usually have there own horses, so they could rent a horse to do a days work in the field. Quiet clever if you ask me… And, in addition to being clever for the good people of Haribo, it fit neatly into my plan.  
That is, if my plan didn't go haywire.

When we reached the other side of town, Tor-Leif stopped and dragged me inside a low hut. He told me to shut up, with a finger over his , I could take a hint, and I kept quiet. "Sid ned." He said and pointed to a bag of hay behind me.

That too I understood, and was quiet proud of my linguistic skills in the two seconds it took before he opened his mouth again;

"Prøv at forstå mig, Sire, jeg vil gerne hjælpe, men hvis jeg bliver fanget, hvad så med Ann og Julie?" I could see on his face that he was worried and I didn't like that he talked about the girls and I didn't know what he said. That didn't stop him, because he went on,

"Jeg ved hvor Deres fader, Colonel O'Neill er, men jeg kan ikke vise Dem helt derind, det sagde Ann til Dem, ikk sandt?"

Okay,what did he say about Jack and Ann? God, it was getting more and more frustrating to be here, among these Scandinavian wannabees, not understanding squad of what they were worryingly telling me!

"Listen Tor-Leif, I don't understand you, so slow down will ya?"

He looked strangely at me and continued:

"Lord John, jeg forstår ikke Deres sprog, men jeg tror jeg forstår Dem." He said a little hesitating, but with more and more confidence. "Bliv her." He turned around and went to a big, coffin like chest and opened it. He removed some blankets and clothes, then turned around and waved me over. "Kom. Se." I walked over, looking at him and then down at what he showed me inside:  
A middle long sword, a dagger, a little shield and a body armour.

I looked up at him. "Cool."

He looked a little uncertain so I smiled at him and a small toothless smile erupted on his face. "K..ool?" he said slowly and pointed down at the sword.  
"Yeah, they're all cool, this is cool stuff!" I said and pointed at everything inside.  
He smiled and took up the armour and pushed it up to my chest.

"Rustning?" he said. I took it and said with a small smile:

"Armour."

He nodded. "Armer."

Yeah well, Rome wasn't build in one day, you're getting it.

He gave it to me and started to drag off my clothes. "Prøv."

Okay, I got it:

"You want me to try it on?"

He nodded. "Try, try, prøv den!" he was getting excited and I couldn't help but laugh a little.  
The old geezer sure was quick on the uptake.  
I took of the robe Tor-Leif had given me, and my jacket. I looked atthe armour, not really knowing how to get it on. Tor-Leif got it and he helped me in it.

It was quiet heavy and I knew if I ever had to fight in such thing, I would be dead in two seconds flat. I couldn't move in it!

He gave me the sword, dagger and shield and stood a few steps bag, looking me up and down.

"Uh!" he said, apparently remembering something important.  
He looked inside the chest again, rummaging around until he found what he was looking for. He came over to me with two very big and veryunhandy-looking iron gloves. "Ikke så stærke som Tor's egne, men de er gode at have på i kamp." He said.

I just arched an eyebrow. "Ah…" I said and took them on. "Uhm, they're, ehh big." I said, not wanting to offend the old man, even if he didn't understand a word I was saying.

"Big!" he exclaimed with a grin. Then he turned serious, but still with a small smile he said;  
"Dit." and pointed at me.

"What?" I said looking down at me.

"Dit!" he said again as if it was the cure to cancer or something.

"Okay, well..ehh Tor-Leif, it is always fun to play dress- out, and I will rehearse my Ni! exclamation, but you know I really have to go and find my dad…" I started and lay down the sword and glows.

"No!" he exclaimed and took up the glows and shoved them back in my arms, together with the sword.

"Tor, I really can't…"

Then it hit me. It was a gift, for me from him.

I looked at him for a moment; seeing that he understood that I had finally understood what he meant. I knew this was a big thing, the hut Tor-Leif apparently lived in, was nothing more then clay and some hay for roof and the interior was sparse to say the least.

"Are you sure?" I asked, not really knowing what to say.

"Dit, Lord John." He said with a proud smile and he padded my hand.

"Thank you." I said sincerely, hoping he understood.

He did, I saw it in his eyes. He nodded and turned again.

Now, my next problem was, how to be covert when dressed as an undersized, soon-to-be sweaty, knight in shining armour….

***

_**Chapter 6: Blod - Sucking... Suckers?**_

You know, to be covert in armour was something I didn't think possible, I mean, the thing was old and heavy and I thought I was going to faint from a heatstroke when the sun hit, but nobody noticed me. I had left Tor-Leif after he had drawn the way to Jack for me and I was now on my way to a forest, just outside the village. The old man had been weak in his offering on what was going over with Jack, but something told me it wasn't a picnic in a sunny clearing.

I know that the Viking-wannabe people we have encountered so far on missions have been friendly, and the Asgard have been their "gods" and all, but there was definitely something wrong here and I couldn't help but wonder if Thor knew about this. He probably did and just didn't wanted to interfere in the people's development…

I shook my head, clearing it from all those Daniel'isms that flew around in there:  
This was definitely something he could have stated to me…to Jack.

The sun had started to set and the market place was beginning to didn't take long before I was at the city gates, sneaking onboard acarriage and hiding under some covers until we were a good way from the village. I looked out from under my cover and saw that there was another horse carriage behind us. Getting out unseen from my hiding place would be difficult.

I tried to take a look at my immediate surroundings, what was with me on the wagon: some few chickens in a cage, some tools, clothes and meat.

Hm, not the worst, but defiantly not the best to work with.

I looked behind me again and saw the same as before: the carriage, the horse, the old man driving and the even older dog by his side. But on the ground, now that was an entire different story: two big ugly Irish wolf hound-looking things, so dirty and mean looking, even Cujo would turn around with his tail between his legs, sauntered big and alert on each sides of the wagon.  
The dogs were no doubt watchdogs, probably to protect the wagon and its owner at the marketplace and on its way home.

The plan was simple and there fore brilliant, except for one thing: To get the chicken out of the cage without anybody notice it, would be difficult. You see, chickens have a nasty habit of making a lot of noise once you try to take them out of their cage and feed them to the dogs.

So all my special ops skills came to a test as I tried to sneak open the cage and take one of the big chickens up. It didn't really succeed, but nobody noticed the extra `bok-bok´ from the body truck and with a swift movement I had the bird free and more or less threw it to the dogs.

Animal Planet could sue me for chicken abuse later.

It didn't take long before the dogs saw the bird and were over it in seconds, tearing the poor thing to bits. Soon the dogs were fighting over their prey and Old Yellow beside the old man on the wagon was barking, dying to get down where the action was.

The old man yelled, tried to get the fighting dogs to stop while getting his third dog to shut up and getting himself of the wagon.  
My ride stopped and the driver slowly came down and around to see what the noise was about. In the same moment, I let another chicken out of the cage and Old Yellow jumped the almost 2 meters down and was after the bird faster then I would had anticipated for such an old thing. The two Irish Wolfs was still fighting but was distracted by the older dog's barking and left the torn bird, to hunt the still alive one, with the two old men after them.

The coast was clear for me and I quickly got out and was in the forest a second later. I could still hear yelling and barking when I found the trail Tor-Leif had drawn for me, and I almost felt sorry for the dogs as I heard one or two howling from somewhere in the woods.  
I cleared my mind and focused on my mission: Get Jack and the rest of SG1 away from this crazy planet.

It didn't take long before I was deep into the forest and I tell ya, it felt good to being able to run, jump, dug and sneak around in the dirt again. The best part was, I was faster and more agile then I had ever been, and I used to pride myself with being just that. I could easily keep up with Teal'c, but now… well lets just say, I found more and more pros with this new body, armour or not!

When the sun had settled and the moon was getting smaller and smaller on the night sky, I continued with my task, being more alert then before.

You never know what kind of things comes out on alien planets at night.

I stopped a few times to get a drink and a rest, making sure I still had my gun and precious items in my pockets.  
It seemed that after getting this new body, I had started a habit of collecting stuff along the way and feeling almost naked without my knife, matches, duck tape and other weird stuff. It was odd, but after starting back in high school again, it was me people came to when some doohicky had broken down and they needed a temporarily substitute. But the even more freaky thing was, it all seemed so easy for me now, it just seemed logic for me to use gum paper when a fuse had burned out in the physic class or a paperclip to fix the faculties coffee machine.  
And I didn't even knew you could do that!

I made a mental note to get Jack to ask Thor if there had been any tampering with my brain when they were at it.

My thoughts seemed to straighten out as I thought of Jack and I couldn't help but thinking of what might have happened of him. I didn't like the looks in the crowd's eyes as I was ushered away a couple ofhours earlier... I also hoped Carter, Daniel and T had gotten my written message in the porridge, before the slop I had served for them, had it all drenched and unreadable.

Of course, if that happened, there would be plan B, that they would figure out why there were paperclips and nails in the water. I just hoped they would check it out.

Knowing Daniel, the way I did, he would. I did pick the pretty pitcher set for them…

When I heard noises in the undergrowth I stopped and waited, almost holding my breath.

The noise stopped and I was hoping it was an animal, but something told me it wasn't.  
Not really, so I set off again, this time with a little more speed.

I could hear something behind me and knew I wasn't just being paranoid when I heard the heavy breath getting more rapidly as I started to run.

I had to get a bigger distance between me and who or what ever, was after me.

I was running as fast as I could in the thick forest and I could feel and hear that I was getting away from my pursuers. I quickly fell inbehind a tree and waited. I got my breath under control, not letting my breathing tell of my position.

It didn't take long before the noise was back. It sounded like flapping, like a big bird or a bat perhaps, it was defiantly wings, and then footsteps. Then they too stopped, not far from me.

"You can stop your hiding child. Iknow where you are." The voice was low, almost a whisper, but I could hear it as if it was just beside my ear. It was a little creepy. " I don't want to harm you, and I don't want you to harm me. I am here to help you." Well that was easy for…who ever it was to say, but I wasn't about to jump forward and yell "HERE I AM!"  
Nope. Beside, the voice sounded like it was from a male, and from what I could gather from the footsteps, a rather big one. And I'm talking Marine big!

"You do not believe me?" Suddenly the voice had changed to a female and now I could feel a cold breath at my neck. I swirled around, finding myself nose to nose with a beautiful brunet, dressed in something black. Her skin was as white as the moon and her eyes as dark as the night. I had drawn my weapon and had it under her throat, and even for someone who hadn't seen a Earth weapon before, I made it very clear that this could hurt her.

"Back off!" I sneered at her in the lowest tone my betraying voice could muster.

I had figured out pretty fast that it was still changing, and it bailed out on me on the most unfortunate times. Like in the boys locker room after getting the usual welcome-to-the-school-whip with a towel. It took me by surprise dammit and I admit it, I shrieked like a girl.  
It was…embarrassing.

She smiled, but did it anyway.

"I am no threat to you, young one." She said in a silky voice. She really creeped me out, but as the moonlight hit her between the trees, I couldn't help but notice that she was stunning. I just hoped that my hormone-crazed body didn't betrayed me like my voice had done.

Sometimes, I had NO control over my body, none what so ever. I don't remember being a teenager had ever been this difficult the first time.

Okay that's not true, I do, but this time it seems worse. The little airman had even tried to salute one of the girls in English literature and I SO didn't need that! It had been a little difficult to explain my sudden departure in the middle of Hamlet to my teacher, Mr. James. But then again, he had been cool, put two and two together and had figured it out by himself. I really liked that man, he reminded me of Daniel, except he seemed to sense that I did NOT need to talk about it. He had just nodded, smiled a little and let it go, if I promised it didn't happened again. Yeah well, just don't make us wear the real clothes next time we do Shakespeare, there is nothing more revealing then men in tights!

My thoughts snapped back to the woman in front of me who had started to giggle.

What the hell?!

I still had my weapon pointed at her, and she was giggling like a school girl?! Oh god, no more schoolgirls, I thought as my treacherous brain produced a mental image of this stranger in short school uniform, skirt and ponytails!

She now laughed out loud and I was getting frustrated:

"Who the hell are you? AND STOP LAUGHING!"

She almost buckled over, holding her stomach, trying to compose herself. "Sorry, sorry. Haha… oh my… hihi…" She looked up at me and wiped her face and the laughter disappeared, replaced by a small smile.

"It's just, I forget how young human males think. It can be quiet entertaining."

What?!

"Who are you?" I said again, getting myself as much under control as possible. "And what are you doing here?"

She got serious now as she took a deep breath: "My name is Eldera, and I'm here to protect you."

What?

"What?"

She smiled again and looked around. "We should get moving." She started to walk away, leaving me to follow. I did just that, but getting in front of her.

"Stop right there, lady!"

"Eldera."

"Right. I ask you again, and this time I want some real answers: Who are you and what are you doing here?"

She looked confused for a moment, and then it was as if she got it.

"I am a night creature, here to protect you from the others."

Others?

"The others are also night creatures, like me, but not."

"Not what?"

"I am different. I do not believe what they are doing is right, and I am outcast."

"Outcast? From what? And who are these others?"

"The others are evil."

For the first time it was as if her eyes came alive and a fire shone in there, deep inside. She was telling the truth. Her truth.

"Okay, they are evil. How do I know you're not evil as well, trying to deceive me to follow you to them?"

She smiled. "You know."

I decided to stick to my first observation: She was definitely creepy. Beautiful, but creepy.

"How do you know?" Semantic I know, but that usually works on liars.

"I know," again with that knowing smile. "you know?"

Ooo-kay. We all knew, apparently. I just didn't know what we knew, you know?

She gave a small snort and a smile.

"You are funny, little one."

"What?" it felt like she was inside my brain, it was this cold feeling of not being alone.

"You are clever as well."

"…What?"

This wasn't going good.

"Wait a second! You're in… my head?!"

She turned her head to look at me again after looking it to the dark forest. I didn't know what she could possible have looked after, it was pitch dark!

"No. I am right here. But to answer the question you have yet to voice; I know of your brain activity, yes."

CRAP!

"There is no need to alarm, young one. I will not harm you in any way."

Ya think?!

"I can not harm you."

"What do you mean by, can not?" I asked, trying not to think.

Suddenly all her interest in co-operation was gone and she got stiff as a surfboard.

A finger in the air told me to can it and I automatically got down and to the tree. She was right behind me, quiet as a mouse, but I could feel her present, physical and the chill in my brain was constant.

_"What is it?" _I thought, hoping she could still hear me.

_"There is someone out there." _

It was getting more and more creepy, I could actually hear her in my head, not like a whisper at my ear any more, more like…silent communication.

"I'm in your head as well?" I really tried not to panic right there. I have always liked my thoughts private but to be getting access to somebody's private and most inner secrets was a little to much for me. One thing was for her to be in mine but for me to be in her… nope that was just wrong on SO many levels.

_"Do not worry about it, little one. I will try and keep control."_ Was that a smile in her voice I could hear? She was yanking my chain, I knew it!

Oh don't let me stopping your train of thoughts!

She smiled and suddenly she laid her hand on my shoulder. _"Put my finger in your mouth."_

I turned my head and saw her finger coming dangerously close to my mouth. It took all my power not to voice my immediate thoughts: "What?No! That's gross!"

_"This is the only way to get away!"_

_"No, no way am I sucking you!"_

There were a short pause from her and I couldn't help the very disturbing mental image of me sucking her thumb.

_"Oh... I see."_

"Yes! Thank you!" I almost let go of my breath when the thought hit me: _"How can me sucking your…" _I didn't get any further as she spun me around and planted a big one on my lips, and my brain kinda blacked out.

***

The next thing I remember is waking up, or getting away from her, I don't know, but she was hovering over me, looking some what amused but also a little worried. It was still dark so I couldn't have been out of it for long.

"You are alright?" she said.

I tried to squeak something intelligent but all that came out was a weak: "Wha'?"

"Can you sit up?"

I tried to get up and the world started to swirl in front of me.  
"Nooo, 'ot good ide'…" I heard my self mumbled, but she got the message and helped me down again.

"We do not have much time before we have to go again." She said pulling something like a can of water or something, from her clothes. I look at her working the canteen open and pouring some of its content out in the fabric of her coat, which she had ripped of. She put the cool pice of cloth on my forehead and it felt great. The chill had left my brain, which had to mean she was out of my head.

"Wha' happnd?" I asked, touching the cloth. My head was pounding as if someone had thrown a rock concert inside my head.

"You passed out after I cloaked us. I am sorry, I should have warned you, but there was no time. It will hopefully not happen again."

"No, I hope not…" I was getting my ability to speak again, weehee for that. "So, what did you do, and why did you do it, and why do you have to protect me?" I said, hoping, wanting, more then some bones to work with here.

She sat down and started to explain: "Those who are after you, can smell that you are different then those who already liveon this planet. The young blood in your veins contains the key for theire freedom. I am here, send by my father, who like me, thinks differently of extracting that key, then the rest of the nightcreatures. Just before, when I wanted you to "suck me" as you put it, I had to get you inside me to hide you as well as myself from the hunters."

Ah! Well that makes sense. NOT!

"Ehh… okay. Ehm and what method is that?"

She looked at me with those dead eyes again. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Not really…

"These others, do they have Jack?"

She looked away, out in the forest. That should had been enough answer for me, but I had to know, so I spun her around to look at me again:"Do they have my father?!"

She looked me straight in the eyes when she answered: "Yes, they do."

***

_**Chapter 7: From Dusk Till Dawn**_

"Well, we have to get him and the rest of his team off this planet." It wasn't a question, it wasn't an order, it was a fact. If they wanted my blood when they already had Jack, something must have been wrong with Jacks. That meant, what?  
That they had already tapped all his blood, like blood sucking vampires?

She stood up as I did the same. She took my arm to steady my still woobly legs, and before she took of, I held on to her, had one more question that couldn't wait: "What are you, exactly? A Vampire? Werewolf? What?" She looked questioningly at me. "You know, blood sucking bastards who only exist in kids imagination?"

She straightened up at that and I knew I had hit the nail on something. "I do very much exist, and I do NOT suck blood!" she yanked her arm away from me, and started walking in the forest. So, not a vamp, huh? Well, we'll see about that.

The next 20 minutes or so, none of us said a word. I didn't feel the cool feeling in my head I had had when she had read my mind the last time, so I stayed out of hers (like I even knew what I had done to get in there the first time!) as she stayed out of mine. We didn't really talk either, and I kept holding on to the map Tor-Leif had drawn to me.

So far, we were on the right track, and I didn't really had to tell her not to following me, did I? Not that she really was following me, it was more the other way around, but she just happened to walk the same way as I did so there you go…

As we walked on in silence, I couldn't help but wondering what was going on with my team. They had all looked a little rattled, Teal'c looking bad even though he tried to fake it, Carter, what I had been able to see, had been looking like crap, but otherwise okay and Daniel being Daniel, also looking like he would make it, if he could keep his spirit up.  
I just couldn't shrug off the feeling of leaving them behind. I knew it was a stupid thing to ponder about; there was nothing I could have done without selling out on Jack. No, I had done the right thing, even though it felt wrong.

Suddenly, I could feel her presence again, but I said nothing just kept walking. I tried to shut everything down, except my concentration on finding Jack and get them all home. I didn't need her snooping around in my mind, I wasn't even sure I liked her very much.

_"Finding anything interesting?"_ I couldn't help but thinking as she didn't back out.

_"I am finding your silence fascinating, young one. Not many human children can stay silent for long."_

"Oh? Does your long experience in "protecting human children" tell you that or do you just read a lot?" I didn't know my thoughts were that sarcastic…

_"You are angry?"_

"Oh stop the innocent act! We both know you don't have a clear conscience acting as my bodyguard, which I don't need by the way…"

"I do not act anything. I have told you that…"

"That you want my blood, yeah I got that. It's just, where I come from, we don't suck each others blood to get better!"

"Your blood is very powerful, more then you know, and your father did not respect that…"

"Oh, will you stop that already!" This broad really got my blood boiling!

_"We both know he's not my father, and he did respect "my blood" as you call it, because it's his own!"_

"And he respects his own blood?"

My little revelation didn't seem to surprise her all that much and that just proved my first impression; she was hiding something.

_"How can he not?!"_

She was getting more and more obscure.

_"He was willing to sacrifice you, his own blood, for those who travelled with him. He used you as a trading gift, and still claiming to be against slavery."_

"That's not the same!" I said, hoping to hell I sounded more convincing then I felt.

The truth was, I had had those same thoughts earlier: Was it fair tha tJack and Hammond had pulled me in as a trading gift? And then leaving me to get of the planet alone? Sure, I owed them my life, Carter, Daniel and Teal'c had been saving my butt more then I was proud of, but from a humane point of view?

But I wasn't one to think in those lines, I never had been, I was the one taking the orders,sticking it to The Man, doing as I was told as a good little because I now literally WAS a little soldier, it hadn't changed; I was still Colonel J. O'Neill, USAF, I even got paid by them. Paid to go to school, and become an even smarter soldier then before.  
Paid to hold my body and mind in shape, to get ready for another life in the fight against evil.  
This mission was like a test, to see if I did as I had been paid for, to keep in shape, and get upgraded in high school.  
And now, I had to prove that I had, I could still do what I was paid for, I was still the same solider, and then some. Hell, the Air Force had even told me what classes to attend, only leaving a few for me to choose! Do you think I would had freely attended English lit? I doubt it, tights have never been my thing!

"It is not?" she said, sounding a little confused.

"No, it is not." I left it with that, because I knew it was the same: I had been swapped over for something else, left to my own devices, in the hands of strangers like a thing, bought and paid for in a store.

I tried to open for the part of me having to get of the planet alone,showing what I could, what I had been, without letting anything else slip, so she could understand and leave me alone. Suddenly, it got important to me that she understood and accepted what I was about to do, what I was. I eased up, stopping and pretending to get something to drink. The truth was, I wasn't thirsty, the night was cold and moistand I wasn't sweating much. I looked at her, she had stopped a little up ahead, keeping guard for… anything, everything, night creatures,wasn't it? It was as if she was in motion al the time never really resting. Suddenly she got quiet and still and I could feel the chill in my brain. She was back, and I let her look behind door number one.

After a few minutes, she moved again, and I took it as a sign that she had seen what I had allowed her. I didn't know if she could spy in on anything I didn't want her to or if she just respected my privacy, but I'm pretty sure, she didn't see further then door number one. She didn't say anything, but I think she finally understood.

"Let's move." I said and trotted on.

***

It didn't take long before the forest started to get thin and we could see buildings.

"Your father…"

"Jack." I said, not caring anymore about cover, she knew it all.

"Jack, is being held captive in there" she said and pointed above the low buildings and up at a big castle. "In the basements somewhere, being experimented on."

I looked at her, she was kidding me, right?

"Bit of a cliché, don't you think?"

Apparently, she didn't as she kept on.

"He do not have much time. I will go in and search for him, and signalling you when I find him." She was already moving out in theclearing before I pulled her back.

"AH no no no no, I don't think so." Again, she looked confused, as if wondering why anybody would have anything against such a brilliant plan.

"Your not going anywhere without me."

"But you need the rest, you can not go on without it. I can."

"Yeah well, I think I can take it you know. I got spirit." The joke died in the silence around and between us.

"If, and I stretch IF, you were to go in alone, how did you plan on signalling me? The sun will be up soon and anything I have to see from here, will be seen from the good folks of Creepyville here…"  
She looked around and it got chilly on the top again. "This town?!"

God, she was more thick then Teal'c had been first arriving on Earth.

"This town…" She looked almost sad for a moment and she left my mind.  
"This town does not need a name." She got up again and looked with determination in her eyes down at me. "I will contact you, do not worry your self, young one. Sleep, and rest. It will do you good."

And she was off.

_"Yeah right as if that ever gonna happen! How am I supposed to see your signal if I'm asleep?!"_ I thought as I looked at her moving back.

She looked back at me with a little soothing resembling of a smile, and then the weirdest thing happened: She ran a few steeps, unfolded her arms and her coat flapped behind her, her arms transforming to long wings together with the rest of her body, and in a blink of an eye, a big black… thing, had taken her place. It looked like a big bat, with leather like wings, but not really, reminding me more of those winged dinosaurs Charlie had used to read about. It circled once over my head, and then it was gone in the night.

I saw that the moon was gone and that dawn had started to break…

"Welcome to Creepyville, we hope you'll enjoy your stay." I muttered as I sat down under a big tree, hoping more then well that I wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.

***

It was Eldera who signaled me that the coast was clear. Just to make sure, I looked around the fields. Everything looked okay; a few early butterflies flew around in the clear sunshine from the recently risen sun, collecting their nectar. It looked peaceful. A little too peaceful in my opinion, and there was still the fact that I didn't trust Eldera further then I could throw her winged ass.

As I stood up, I heard a sound: a twig snapping in the undergrowth behind me. I knew I had been spotted and cursed myself for being careless.

Barely moving a muscle, I laid my hand on my sidearm and waited a few seconds before spinning around and aiming the gun at my hunter and now target. It only took a split second before I recognized Daniel, but it was a split second too late, as he had already put his hands up in front of his face, all color draining from his cheeks. A second later he still stood there, with a surprised expression on his face, even though I had lowered my weapon to my hip.

"Jesus Christ, John! Take it easy, it's just us!"

Teal'c bass voice was somewhere close: "Did I not advise you not to sneak up on O'Neill, Daniel Jackson?" His voice sounded patient, tired and paternal, as usual when addressing the young archaeologist. I could spot Carter's blond head behind Daniel. Teal'c's appearance out of the blue at my side didn't surprise me at all.

"He's right, Daniel, he did warn you." She looked beaten down, tired and dirty. Other then that, she seemed okay. She beamed a smile at me. "It's good to see you again, sir," she added with a odd look in her eyes. I didn't disagree, just nodded and turned an disapproving stare at Daniel.

"You should know better by now, Daniel." He did have the good grace to look ashamed and down at the ground. I looked at them all. I had missed them, all of them. Even Jack I guess, if you can miss your old self. "Glad to see you could make it," I added, a bit more sarcastically then intended. I guess I was more worried then I had realized. They all looked at me, ready for whatever I sprang on them.

"Yes sir, we found your note and tools, and then found you here." I nodded, knowing Teal'c would have been able to track us down.

"Ah. I was worried you would see it and eat it instead." I looked back over the field. Nothing had changed and the mirror signal was still blinking. I looked back at them. "You all okay?" They didn't say anything, just nodded. Translating into: not really, but we'll make it through. "That bad, huh?"

No answer, until Daniel changed the subject: "Where's Jack?"

"Apparently," I said, and looked back over the field, "in the castle's basement, over there." I nodded over at the big castle behind the city walls.

"Oh, he's kept in a big, dark scary castle. Of course he is," he said as if that was the most natural thing in the world. "Where else would he be?" he added sarcastically. I would had been proud, had the timing not been so critical.

"So, what's the plan, sir?" I looked at Carter with a blank expression, which she misinterpreted. "You do have a plan, right? Sir?"

"Of course I do, Carter," I snapped at her. "The three of you don't fit in it, though." They looked surprised, and Daniel of course looked a little crestfallen. "And lose the 'sir,' I'm not military anymore," I mumbled as I turned my back to them, gathering my few belongings from the ground. Daniel, ever the voice of reason, cut in.

"Okay, so you didn't calculate us into the plan, makes sense, you didn't know if we were coming, but surely, you can't do this on your own?" He looked a mix of concern, curiosity, and like a kicked puppy.

"No Daniel, you're right, I can't. And I'm not going to."

His eyebrows shot up like a rocket. "Really? Hammond sent you troops?"

I stared at him, wondering why he would come to that conclusion. "No."

His eyebrows descended. "Oh."

Carter stepped in. "Then, who's...um..."

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Call me John, for crying out loud." She looked a little uncomfortable at that prospect and didn't say anything else. "I got someone on the inside." I added.

"Really?" Daniel again. Why was he so skeptical all of a sudden? "How?" he added, but as always, it was Teal'c who cut to the chase and asked the question I had been asking myself all morning.

"Is your person on the inside trustworthy, O'Neill?"

I looked him straight in the eye, for the first time in a month. "I'm not sure."

"I see," Teal'c said, and looked over the field at the castle. That seemed to be enough for all of them, so far.

The smart thing would be to bring them along as backup, but they didn't look too good; their weapons and vests were missing and we were in unknown territory. The odds were against us, they knew it and they were up for it. SG1 at its best, I guess.

I looked back at the castle, thinking of ways to smuggle them inside the town. I sighed. "Come on."

Carter smiled, Daniel scurried after her, and Teal'c brought up the rear. I knew it was a bad idea, bringing them along, but then again, what was I supposed to do? Nobody gets left behind.

Soon, we were on our way. Carter, Teal'c and Daniel stayed out of sight, following me from the bushes at the outskirts of the field, while I crossed the field in broad daylight. This was a bad idea, I could be walking into a big fat trap, with only three wounded people as backup. Then again, it could be worse, I thought with a small smile. It could be Marines having my back, not SG1. All in all, I had the best odds possible in a sucky situation. SG1 would have my back, no matter what. I was damn proud of my old team, knowing what had been and what now was. They were fighting for a member of their team, and they didn't take no for an answer. They were bringing Jack home, no matter what. He was lucky to have them, and I knew he knew that. He just didn't show it very often.

Knowing SG1 had my back from a distance, in the outskirts of the woods, I walked on to the castle...  
Before I knew it, I was at the town gate, slipping inside and leaving the door open for the kids. I looked around the mostly empty courtyard and saw Eldera crossing the street into the castle. She was dressed like one of the goth chicks from school, with a big cape in black and red velvet. She smiled at me and I knew she was reading my mind again; I could feel the odd cold present of another person rummaging through my thoughts. It was all very distressing and gave me a freaky feeling of déja vu, but still, I couldn't stop thinking of how hot she looked. I'm 16, so sue me!

"Follow me," she said in a seductive voice inside my head. I braced myself and followed her. She led me through a small mass of people who were starting to put stuff out for a market for the day. None of them seemed to think twice about the half-naked, beautifully and scantily clad woman leading a teenage boy who was, obviously, an out-of-towner, down a steel staircase to the dungeons. The place was creepy and I didn't trust her, at all.

"You are still worried I will deceive you," she said, her voice bouncing up and down the wet stone walls inside the dungeon. It was dark inside and the smell was rather unpleasant. I couldn't really place the smell, but it was sickeningly familiar.

"Where are we going?" I asked and changed the subject. I could feel her leave my mind alone and I idly wondered if SG1 was still on my tail and if they could get me and Jack out of here, once I found him, without being caught themselves.

"We are almost there," she said, and pulled out an old goblet which had a strange orange glow to it. "Do not worry, little one, your father will be fine...better then fine."

I didn't really like her low greedy voice as she said the last part. The last time somebody had said that to me, I had found myself in too-big pants and 30 years younger.

She had stopped and placed the goblet on some kind of lock, and a door appeared out of nowhere and opened. She suddenly took me and pulled me by my vest inside. It was then I realized my amour was gone and I stood in my SG field uniform. I looked down and saw my P90 hanging from my chest, disarmed, the magazine empty.

"What the hell is going on?!" I demanded to know, all my alarm bells going off at once. She walked over to me, closing the doors.

"Don't worry, my dear, we're just having you for dinner, that's all."

I could suddenly hear flapping noises, loud flapping noises. I looked up and around me, all over there were bats. Big, flying, hairy bats came down from the black ceiling with incredible speed, all laughing a cackling laugh, like something straight out of a Grimm's fairy tale. Every one of them showed me their teeth: big, white fangs. Vampires, was my first thought. My second thought was, no weapon to defend myself with. Probably no backup in time, either.

The creatures, with Eldera and her big ugly fangs showing, circled in on me.

"Back off!" I warned, trying not to panic. "Where is Jack?" Eldera smiled even wider and looked up. Instinctively, so did I. Something large and dark was dangling from the ceiling, something I didn't see a a minute earlier. It was slowly coming closer, and it was dripping, I realized, as something wet and warm hit my cheek. More drops landed on my forehead and shoulders. I looked around me, dreading what I might see. Big, red splatters landed around me. I could smell what they were now, after one landed on my upper lip. Metallic, almost like rust, thick and hot. It was blood. I could feel it warm against me skin, almost alive, connecting with me. I looked up, knowing what I would see up there, coming slowly down towards me. Jack. He was bound up, gagged, and appeared to be unconscious, thank god. She had him dangling like a piñata, holes everywhere with blood dripping from his skin. His skin. It was torn in several places and he had a big nasty cut from his left eye down to his neck, where more holes had punctured his veins. The creatures had all landed now and were still circling in on me, and I felt like I was suffocating when Eldera grabbed me hard by my shoulders, licking from my throat up to my hairline. Her hot, stinky saliva burned like acid, and I started to panic when the rest of the creatures were close enough to touch me. They were all pulling me in different directions and Jack's blood was still dripping down on me. I knew it was too late, but I started to struggle. I pushed and kicked at everything I could get in contact with, but it was no use. Far away, in the distance, I could hear somebody call my name, probably SG1 or maybe Jack. I realized I had closed my eyes, and when I opened them, I looked into a bearded face with an evil smile. My heart stopped as I looked into the evil brown eyes of Baal. I screamed and struck out, hitting him square in the chest, sending him flying away, only to be out-manned by the crowd of blood-sucking vampires. Suddenly, everybody let go of me and I heard my name one more time, this time much more clearly: "John O'Neill!" A woman screamed my name with terror in her voice. Something wasn't right.

Miss Sung's accusing voice brought me back to the land of the living. Had I been sleeping? My body sure felt awake. And why was she so angry? No sane human being could stay awake in detention! I looked at her, kneeling at Principal Jackson's side. He was lying on the floor, looking like he was regaining consciousness. What the hell had happened? I looked around at the other kids in the classroom, all looking either frightened, awed, or holding back laughter. That was when I realized what had happened. Crap! I had been sleeping, dreaming something nasty from the gutter of my unconscious coffin of pleasant vacation memories. Jackson had tried to wake me up, and reacting in the true and friendly spirit of the Irish, I had pushed him away. Hard, apparently, since I had knocked him unconscious. Double crap! This would probably stir up some unwanted attention.

"Shit! Principal Jackson, sir!" I rushed to his side, wincing when I saw Miss Sung flinch away from me. Triple crap! She was afraid of me. No wonder, what if it was her who had tried to help me out of my nightmares. I'm not sure her head is as thick as the big principal's. "You okay, sir? I'm so sorry sir, you should never EVER wake me up when I'm sleeping, sir!" I realized I was yelling at an authority person who was supposed to be a lot older then me, but dammit, this sucked! As a veteran himself, he should know the signs! But then again, he probably didn't expect them from a 16-year-old kid from Minnesota. It was my own fault, I had fucked up by falling asleep. Stupid. I was slipping, dammit! Jackson sat up and shook his head. He looked up at me and let me grasp his hand, pulling him to his feet.

"I'm okay, Jonathan. Don't worry." He patted my arm and forced a weak smile to his face. "That's a mean arm you have there, son." I was still more or less in a panic; I could have killed him, after all. Realization was crashing down on me, and all he had to say was that I had a mean arm?!

**Chapter 8: Kick Ass!**

********  
_Principal Jackson's POV:_  
I went to the classroom as soon as I had finished my phone call with Colonel O'Neill, Jonathan O'Neill's uncle. He was coming to pick the kid up and get him away from school. He didn't sound surprised or even angry when I had called him and told him about his nephew ending up in detention. He just thanked me for calling and promised that he would come and pick the kid up as soon as possible. Other parents or guardians freak out when I tell them their kid is in detention, but not the Colonel: He was calm and collected and thanked me again for calling before hanging up. He sounded like a good and friendly man, the Colonel. I was sure he would be good for young John; he seemed like a lost and sad little boy. I idly wondered what he had been through during his short life as I rushed to detention. John's personal records said that his parents both died in Afghanistan, working for the Red Cross, and that John saw it happen. The kid had seen a lot of action, traveling the world with his parents, and such things usually had an impact on a young mind, even on a tough kid like John O'Neill. I admitted to myself that I did keep an extra eye on John, as did the rest of the faculty staff, but perhaps I checked up on him more then I was supposed to. There was just something about the kid that seemed to have caught my attention on his very first day in school, and he seemed to have held it ever since. He was more mature then the rest of the students; he was street smart and a very intelligent young man. I had been thinking about getting his IQ tested, but until I knew more about his mental stability, I had to put that to rest. But there was more than him probably being MENSA material. He had a sort of aura of respect around him. A respect for other people and their quirks, but also something that drew people to him, to respect him and his oddities. He might not have been the most popular kid on campus, but everybody respected him. He was sort of a big brother of the school. He had a natural ability to lead people, and he did that without even knowing it. He was leading by example, and so far, he had done a great job. God, he had really impressed me and I was actually looking forward to pulling him out of detention and seeing the other kids' faces, especially Nick's, when justice was served.

I knew John hadn't really done anything wrong, except for letting his temper get away from him. Well, that and the whole broken nose thing. That wasn't that smartest thing ever, either. And his language. It was pretty rough, and I had heard him mumble things that would make a Marine blush. But those were things we just had to work on. I knew that if it had been any other student, I would have chewed his head off for calling the librarian, Mr. Kubika, a "two-faced, red-nosed little twat" for throwing him out of the library. Apparently John had been sitting with his feet up on the table. Mr. Kubika was one of the few teachers who didn't like John.

I looked through the window in the door before opening the classroom door to detention. I had arrived faster then I had expected, and all eyes fell on me as I stepped in. All, except for one pair of brown eyes. They were closed, and John O'Neill didn't make much of an effort to try and hide the fact that he was far away in Dreamland. I tried not to smile, but I understood the kid far too well: the assignment Miss Sung had given the class was lying on the floor, probably completed and correct to the last dot. The poor kid was bored out of his mind, but never complained about it. I had a feeling that he had a choice between high school or the USAF Academy and I didn't think he wanted to go just yet. I knew he was looking forward to it, but I also thought he wanted the opportunity to be a "normal kid" for once. To have a place to stay when the going gets tough and not have to travel for awhile. To settle down. John's days of traveling were on standby, I thought.

I nodded to Miss Sung, who smiled, already knowing why I was here. That woman was surprisingly good at reading my temper and body language in seconds. If I was just 15 years younger... As I stepped closer to John, he started to shake and suddenly he said in a surprisingly strong and dangerous voice, almost like a growl: "BACK OFF!"

I stopped, recognizing the warning in the voice.

"John?" I asked, not sure if he was sleeping or not. He stirred again and his right leg twitched a bit, almost like a spasm.

"Where's Jack?!" he demanded, still in that far away voice you have when you are sleep-talking. Suddenly, he got tense all over and his breathing got strangled and rapid, and I realized that he was panicking in his sleep. The strange strangling noises from his throat made my heart thump hard and I realized that this was not normal, that something was very wrong with John O'Neill. I rushed to his side, calling his name. No response, except for the animalistic sounds from his throat. I could see his eyes moving under the shut eyelids and his breathing was getting more and more rapid. He was shaking and suddenly, almost as suddenly as it started, he sat up, quiet and with his eyes open. I'm not sure if he was still asleep or if he was awake. His eyes were all glassy, so I tried to call his name again.

"John?" I calmly asked him, carefully gripping him by his shoulders to make him relax. He stared at me, but didn't see me at all. I tried to get in contact with him by putting more pressure on his shoulders. Mistake. I knew that in the same second as my fingers gripped him tighter around the tense shoulders. He reacted like a machine, both his arms shoving mine upwards and away from him. He stood up and, with a speed and finesse I never thought I would see in a public high school kid, hit me in the chest with such force it felt like I was being hit by a battering ram. I felt myself being pushed backwards and in slow motion I could feel all the air leave my lungs. Suddenly my head hit something and everything turned black.

The next thing I knew, Miss Sung was at my side and John was angrily scolding me for touching him in his sleep.

Funny thing is, I have never been scolded by a student before. Sure, I have been called names and yelled at by kids, thinking they had been treated unfairly, but this time, John O'Neill made me feel small. That was new.

I could also hear panic in his voice, so I tried to soothe him by saying I was fine and complimenting him on his mean arm. Well, it was! And it seemed to calm him down a bit, enough to get him to sit down next to me. I could see his was angry and afraid, and as I looked at Miss Sung, she looked scared. Probably of John. Not really what the kid needed, an extra guilt trip. I hoped he hadn't seen it and I clapped him on the knee.

"Give me a hand up, son." As I got up, I could feel the pain in my neck, head and chest. It was kinda difficult to breathe, but I sucked it up, not wanting to let the rest of the students see weakness in their principal. Well, not more than what they had just seen, anyway. I don't want John to see either, so I sucked it up like any good Marine and soldiered on.

"Your uncle is here, John. Let's go." He looked blankly at me for a second, then he took his backpack and the essay from the floor, slapped the papers on Miss Sung's desk, and followed me out of the class room. As I walked out, I gave Nick the evil eye. Oh yeah, you and I have some talking to do, Mister. Later. I saw him squirm under my gaze and was satisfied that he knew he was in trouble. I opened the door for John, letting him out first.

When the door closed, I rubbed my chest, taking a deep breath. It felt better, but it still stung like hell. I could only imagine if Miss Sung had gotten to John before me. He would have knocked her into next week, not to mention what would have happened to her ribs. Miss Sung was a very petite woman and I wasn't sure she would had woken up on her own. I realized John was squirming as I rubbed my chest. I stopped and lay my hand on his neck to calm him down. He flinched under my touch, and I removed my hand again. He was obviously not comfortable with me touching him, so I backed off and offered him a smile instead. I really needed to talk with Colonel O'Neill; something was very wrong with John. He was avoiding my eyes and just stared at the floor or the wall. Those oh so dark eyes worried me. They are too dark and too sorrowful for a kid his age.

"You okay, son?" I asked him, a bit surprised at how casual I sounded.

He didn't answer, just looked at me and asked in return: "Are you?" He was as pale as a sheet, which only brought out the darkness in his eyes. God, the kid had way too many skeletons in his closet. It was unbearable to think about. With his parents gone and his family almost totally abandoning him, except for the traveling uncle, he was all alone in the world. And now this. Poor kid.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said and started to walk with him, down the hall. "Bad dream?" I asked, hoping to hell I wasn't stepping over his boundaries and getting him to clam up even more. For John O'Neill, this was talking. He was indeed a kid of few words.

He looked away and I didn't know if it was from embarrassment, guilt, or something else entirely, but he was quiet for a long time. Then he said, "I didn't mean to fall asleep in there." I smiled.

"If not for sleeping, then what is detention for?" That made him look up at me. "Don't tell anybody I said that," I added, and won a small smile from him, a smile that never reached his eyes.

"I won't," he said.

"Wanna talk about it?" I asked as we turned a corner. I had known John for a while now, and knowing that if I wanted answers out of him, it usually helped to do something while talking, like shooting hoops, playing hockey or like now, walking. He didn't say anything for a while, but then, just before we reached the front glass doors, he offered me a bone.

"It was vampires, vikings and dogs, oh my." He pulled out his sunglasses, took a deep breath, muttered, "déja vu," and stepped through the front doors and out into the sunlight. I saw a big black truck in the parking lot outside the school, with a tall, lone figure leaning against it. John walked towards it and the man looked up. Colonel O'Neill. This I was looking forward to.

It was quite obvious that John wasn't comfortable with the situation. Maybe John and his uncle weren't as close as I had hoped. John didn't really have anybody else in the world, and the Colonel was the legal custodian of John. I also knew that John didn't stay with Colonel O'Neill. John had his own little apartment downtown, and once a week, a social worker came by and checked up on O'Neill wasn't in town much, being on active duty and all. Before we reached the Colonel, I looked at the boy. He was tense, as tense as a bow, ready to snap.

"You okay, John?" I asked, afraid he would snap in half if he got just a fraction more tense. John didn't so much as flinch.

"I'm fine, thanks," he said shortly, and stopped a few meters from the tall Colonel. Neither of them could hide the family resemblance and bloodline. Both of them stood tall, tense and wearing sunglasses. Both tilted their heads in greeting toward each other. There was an odd silence for a few seconds, as if they were measuring each other up.

"Hello," the Colonel said in a odd tone.

"Hello Jack," John responded in the same tone of voice.

I knew John was wired from the episode in detention and maybe also for this meeting, but the Colonel seemed just as tense. It was very odd, as if they were two strangers who knew each other very well.

"You okay?"

John nodded. "You?" he asked and his uncle shrugged.

"Well, you know, same ol', same ol'."

John nodded as if he really did know, and as if thousands of words were spoken in the silence between them, with a nod and a shrug. I cleared my throat, somehow feeling the need to make my presents known before it got too intimate. The Colonel turned his face to me, and as if pulling a curtain, he became friendly, smiling and open. Well, as open as he could with the aviators still on.

"Principal Jackson, I presume?" We both shook hands and the tension kinda lifted a bit.

"That's right. And you must be Colonel O'Neill?" He nodded and stood back.

"I trust that John here has been cleared?" He looked at me with a seriousness I couldn't place and a tone of voice that was almost demanding. Typical parental voice, but there was something else there, too.

"What exactly happened in gym class is still a bit unclear. As I understand it, John acted with the best intentions, but that doesn't change the fact that he broke the nose of another boy. I can't turn a blind eye on that." The Colonel looked at John, who didn't react.

"Is that true?" he asked the teenager. John cocked his head a bit, but didn't answer. "You broke a kid's nose?" The Colonel asked incredulously. He sighed. "Oy." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, so what are the repercussions? Is he suspended or something?"

I looked at John, who had crossed his arms in front of himself, a typical teenage stance, waiting. He looked a little angry, but kept his anger in check.

"No, I think we'll stick to a reprimand and a disciplinary punishment. A month in the library, shelving books, helping Mr. Kubika tidying up after school."

That got a reaction from John.

"What?! No, anything but that! You know the guy hates my guts!" The Colonel turned a stiff, angry eye on John, who immediately shut his mouth. He then turned to me again.

"I'm sure that's a fair deal. John will turn up and do his part." He put on his sunglasses again and crossed his arms in front of him, just like John had done a moment earlier. John stood a step behind his uncle, and now I could really see the resemblance. John's father must have been the Colonel's twin and John must take after his fater. The apple had hardly fallen from the tree, they were so like twins. Suddently they both stood with a forward stance, straight back, head slightly tilted.

"The bullying aside, I take the code of honor very seriously. There is also a matter of trust and loyalty, qualities I have observed on several occasions in John. When all of this is over, I would like to see John take these attributes seriously and spread them among the students of this school. He seems to command a great deal of respect from them."

I looked hopefully at the Colonel and then at John, whom had taken a step forward, standing side by side with his taller mirror. It was getting freaky. The Colonel looked at John and said, "Your call."

John didn't say anything and then, suddenly, they both took of their sunglasses in the exact same way, looking at me and then at each other. Again, a thousand words flew silently between them, until the Colonel shrugged and said to him: "Makes sense to me." John nodded.

"Like a role model?" John asked me, making clear what I was asking him. I nodded.

"Yeah, like a role model." I smiled at him, thinking this might be good for him.

"No." he suddenly answered, taking both me and the Colonel by surprise.

"And why not, if I may be so bold to ask?" the Colonel said sarcastically. Now I knew where John had that streak of  
personality from.

"I said no, okay?!"

The Colonel lifted an eyebrow. I'm not sure he would had accepted that answer had I not been there. He turned to me and assured me, "We'll discuss it later. We have an appointment to make." John's head turned to the Colonel so fast I was sure he would get whiplash. The young man didn't say anything, just swallowed something and turned a little paler. He put on his sunglasses and waited for his uncle. "John, wait for me in the truck, hmm?" It wasn't really a question, and after a dirty look at his uncle, John said his goodbyes to me and went to the truck where he hopped into the passenger seat with a sour expression. A few seconds later, he put on his iPod and looked straight out the front window.

The Colonel sighed and turned to me. I smiled reassuringly at him.

"Don't worry about that, he's 16."

The Colonel smiled stiffly and nodded. "Yeah, I guess he is." He looked at the school building behind me a second, then turned his focus on me. "Is he...alright?" he then asked me, taking of his sunglasses. I saw real concern in his dark eyes and felt a connection with the man. Perhaps it was a soldier to soldier thing or maybe it was because we both cared a great deal about John, but I could do nothing but be honest.

"Well, he's got straight A's, except for English Lit... I guess you have heard about that little incident during Hamlet?" By the look of confusion on the man's face, I could see that he had not. I quickly moved on for John's sake. "He's a popular kid, captain on the hockey team, but I still sense something in him, something wrong. Something besides being 16 and the new kid. Has he had the chance to talk to someone?" The Colonel looked away, grimacing. This was a touchy subject for him as well, I knew that, but John was more important here. "With your permission, I'd like John to talk to someone, perhaps the school counselor or perhaps a psy..." I didn't get to finish.

"No. No shrinks! I'll talk to him and get back to you, okay?"

Sensing a hostile attitude towards psychiatrists and not me, I just nodded. That might work better for John, if the kid would open up to him. Something told me that the Colonel and John already shared a lot more then I thought.

"Okay Colonel, that sounds good. Thank you," I said.

"No, thank you, sir," he said, and put on the sunglasses again. He smiled at me and shook my hand again. Then he turned around and went back to the car and John. As he walked past John's window, I heard him say in a low voice, "Buckle up, kid, we're short on time."

I could see the irritation in John as he put on his passenger seatbelt. He then removed his glasses and looked at me as the truck's engine roared to life. John looked serious and a little angry. A typical teenager. Suddenly his expression changed, maybe due to something his uncle said inside the truck, but for a moment, a smile danced on his face and his eyes lit up. Then he shielded them behind the glasses and the truck backed out of the parking space.

I stood for a moment and watched the truck turn out from the parking lot and disappear out on the streets of suburbia. I waved my goodbyes to John and his uncle, then turned around and slowly walked back to the main building, hoping John would talk with his uncle. It seemed to me that the Colonel needed that talk as much as John needed it. Maybe they could, together, move past their loss and fill the gaps in each others hearts. Lord knows John needed it.

As I walked back to detention, a small hope flickered in my chest as I thought of the short smile I saw on John's face in the truck. A hope for John. He was a tough kid, he'd manage. With his uncle at his side, those two seemed unstoppable.

A match made out of necessity, that would last the rest of their lives. One could only hope.


End file.
